Abstract
Aim: To report the early results of the Elite Hylamer hip with Zirconium femoral heads in patients younger than 60 years. Methods: 29 hips were implanted in 26 patients by a single surgeon with a specialist interest in hip arthroplasty. Third generation cementing techniques were used for all implants. All patients have been followed up. There has been one death. Results have been analysed using the life table method using the Peto method for 95% confidence intervals. Results: Mean age 49.2 years (range 31–57). 12 Females and 17 Males.15 of 29 hips (53.3%) have been revised or are currently on the waiting list for revision surgery. These failures have occurred in 7 Females and 8 Males. Mean time to failure 35.4 months (range 18 to 68 months). All failures have been as a result of aseptic loosening. Survivorship analysis reveals a 32.42% survival at 5 to 6 years (6.9% standard error). Conclusions: At the time of its introduction, Hylamer was thought to represent a significant step forward in the reduction of the problem of osteolysis. This however has not been our experience. In the light of the catastrophic failure rate in this series of patients, all postoperative X-rays were critically reviewed. We were unable to observe any dramatic technical errors by way of implant malpositioning and cement mantle deficiencies to account for the observed failures. We have also seen that statistically there is no difference in the hip scores for the patients whose hips have failed and those who have not yet met the criteria for failure. In view of this it is imperative that patients with this implant should be reviewed both clinically and radiologically. We feel that these results should be published earlier rather than later to ensure that others remain vigilant in the follow up of their patients
Theses abstracts were prepared by Professor Dr. Frantz Langlais. Correspondence should be addressed to him at EFORT Central Office, Freihofstrasse 22, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland.
