Aims

Two-stage exchange revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) performed in case of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) has been considered for many years as being the gold standard for the treatment of chronic infection. However, over the past decade, there have been concerns about its safety and its effectiveness. The purposes of our study were to investigate our practice, collecting the overall spacer complications, and then to analyze their risk factors.

Two-stage exchange revision total hip arthroplasty performed in case of infection has been considered during many years the gold standard for treatment of chronic infection. Nevertheless, during the last decade, concerns have risen regarding its safety and its efficiency. The purpose of our study was to, first investigate the spacer complications, then to analyze their risks factors.

We retrospectively included 125 patients with chronic hip periprosthetic joint infection who underwent a two stage exchange revision arthroplasty performed between January 2013 and December 2019. All spacer complications were systematically collected and risk factors were analyzed. Statistical evaluation were performed using the Student and Mann-Whitney tests.

Our study confirms the hypothesis of a high-risk strategy with 42% of patients who had a mechanical spacer failure and a 20% recurrence of infection during the average two years period of follow-up. We found a high rate of spacer migration (23%) and a low rate of spacer fracture (8%) compared to literature.

The most important finding was that the majority of spacer complications and failures were found in a population with high medical comorbidities as highlighted by the ASA, Charlson and Lee score associations, as well as with the cardiac, pulmonary, kidney or hepatic chronic conditions.

This study showed that a two-stage hip exchange revision is a high-risk procedure regarding complications and mechanical failures of PMMA spacers.

In patients with high medical comorbidities, other strategies may be considered and interdisciplinary cooperation with other facilities are needed to identify and control each risk factor.

Aims

Recurrent infection following two-stage revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) for prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a devastating complication. The purpose of this study was to report the survival of repeat two-stage revision hip arthroplasty, describe complications, and identify risk factors for failure.

Aims

In patients where the proximal femur shows gross deformity due to degenerative changes or fracture, the contralateral femur is often used to perform preoperative templating for hip arthroplasty. However, femurs may not be symmetrical: the aim of this study was to determine the degree of variation between hips in healthy individuals and to determine whether it is affected by demographic parameters.

The contralateral femur is frequently used for preoperative templating of total hip arthroplasty assuming femoral symmetry. We aimed to define the degree of asymmetry between left and right proximal femurs and whether if affected by demographics parameters.

A CT-scan based modeling and analytics system of 346 CT-scans was used for this study, including pelvis and bilateral femora from 211 men and 135 women (mean age 61 ±16 years, mean BMI 26± 5 kg/m²⁾. The femoral neck shaft angle (NSA), femoral offset (FO), femoral neck version (FNV), femoral length (FL), canal flare index (CFI) and femoral head diameter (FHD) were calculated for each patient. We then, analyzed symmetry based on absolute differences(AD) and percentage of asymmetry(%AS).

An asymmetry >2% was found for NSA (mean AD=2.9°; mean %AS=2.3; p=0.03), FO (AD=3.8mm; %AS=9.1; p=0.01), FNV (AD=5.1°; %AS=46.7; p=0.001) and CFI (AD=0.2mm; %AS=5.4; p=0.7). Percentage of asymmetry was <2% for FL (AD=3.6mm; %AS=0.8; p=0.7) and FHD (AD=0.3mm; %AS=1.2; p=0.8). No correlation and predictive value was found between either AD or %AS and age, ethnicity, gender, height, weight or BMI.

Our data support assumptions of substantial asymmetry of the proximal femur which is not affected by demographics or proximal femoral size.

Clinical relevance: Upper femurs are not symmetric. Preoperative planning on contralateral femur might be affected this geometrical bias.

There is little in the literature on the level of participation in sports which patients undertake after total hip replacement (THR). Our aims in this study were to determine first, the level of sporting activity, second, the predictive factors for returning to sporting activity, and third, the correlation between participation in sports and satisfaction after THR. We retrospectively identified 815 patients who had undergone THR between 1995 and 2005. All were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire regarding their sporting activity. A total of 571 patients (71%) met the inclusion criteria and completed the evaluation. At a mean follow-up of 9.8 years (sd 2.9), 366 patients (64%) returned to sporting activity as defined by a University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) score of > 5. The main reasons that patients had for refraining from sports were fear of dislocation (65; 31.6%), avoiding wear (52; 25.4%), and the recommendation of the surgeon (34; 16.6%). There was a significant relationship between higher post-operative participation in sport in those patients with a higher pre-operative Harris hip score (HHS) (p = 0.0074), motivation to participate in sporting activities (p = 0.00022) and a shorter duration of symptoms (p = 0.0034). Finally, there was a correlation between age (p = 0.00013), UCLA score (p = 0.012) and pre-operative HHS (p = 0.00091) and satisfaction.

In conclusion, we found that most patients participate in sporting activity after THR, regardless of the advice of their surgeon, and that there is a correlation between the level of participation and pre-operative function, motivation, duration of symptoms and post-operative satisfaction.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2014;96-B:1041–6