The fate of well fixed cemented femoral components left in place at the time of revision of the acetabular component.

Abstract

The results were reviewed for thirty-seven hips (thirty-five patients) in which a well fixed femoral component that originally had been implanted with use of a so-called first-generation cementing technique was subsequently left in place at the time of revision of the acetabular component without cement. The purpose of the study was to determine the rate of survival of the femoral component and the complications associated with revision of one side of the joint. The femoral components had been in situ for a mean duration of 102 months (range, twelve to 216 months) at the time of the revision of the acetabular component. At the time of follow-up after the revision of the acetabular component, one patient (one femoral component; 3 per cent) had died, twenty-seven femoral components (73 per cent) were in place and radiographically stable, one femoral component had been removed because of infection, six (16 per cent) had been revised because of aseptic loosening, and two (5 per cent) were definitely loose according to radiographic criteria. Excluding the failures and death, the mean duration of follow-up was sixty-five months (range, forty-eight to 121 months). The predicted survival of the femoral component after the revision of the acetabular component was 88 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 82 to 94 per cent) at forty-eight months and 78 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 67 to 89 per cent) at eighty-eight months. Dislocation occurred in three hips (8 per cent), and a trochanteric non-union occurred in five (14 per cent). The mean rate of linear polyethylene wear did not differ significantly (0.13 as compared with 0.12 millimeter per year; p = 0.74) from that for a comparable group of forty-nine hips that had had a revision of the femoral component without cement and had been followed for a similar duration. The data support the decision to retain a well fixed femoral component that has been implanted with a so-called first-generation cementing technique when the acetabular component subsequently needs a revision. The survival of the femoral component and the risk of associated complications do not appear to be appreciably altered by revision of the other side of the joint.