Extract from June 2013’s EFORT OTE newsletter.
Surgeons who increased their use of large 36-mm and 40-mm diameter femoral heads in the last 10 years after highly crosslinked polyethylene was introduced reported that this change in practice helped them attain lower primary total hip arthroplasty dislocation rates.
Kevin I. Perry, MD, presented an update on a previous study his group did of dislocation after primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting. In their initial study, they found posterior approach and small-sized femoral heads were associated with increased rates of dislocation.
Discussing the latest findings, Perry said, “With [these] data, we see that the larger the head diameter, the lower the dislocation rate. Nevertheless, we are using these larger femoral heads judiciously using primarily 32 mm and 36 mm for a routine primary total hip. We are not advocating using 40-mm femoral head diameters for routine primaries due to risks of trunnionosis and corrosion, and unknown long-term wear rates.”
Read the full article in the June 2013 issue of the EFORT OTE newsletter
