THE INTERMEDIATE FOLLOW-UP OF THE MORSCHER CUP ACETABULAR COMPONENT IN THE BAY OF PLENTY

Abstract

The Morscher Cup is an acetabular component that was popular in the Bay of Plenty Region in the early 1990’s. It is an implant for which there are limited follow up results published in the international literature. Concerns have been raised that in some centres there has been marked, ballooning acetabular bone damage or osteolysis and that the implant may be associated with a higher dislocation rate. This paper will present the 13 – 15 year follow up in patients from Tauranga.

Ethical approval was gained from the Northern Region Y Ethics Committee. Patients who had had a Morscher Cup acetabular component in Tauranga from January 1992 until December 1994 were identified using the Bay of Plenty District Health Board NHI coding system and hospital logbooks. They were then invited to take part in the research which involved completion of WOMAC, Oxford hip score and SF 12 questionnaires, clinical review and an X-ray.

Of 81 patients with 91 Morscher Cup acetabular components implanted during the study period 62 patients with 70 Morscher Cup acetabular components were eligible for the study. Of these, 46 patients were available for clinical review, the remainder of the patients having passed away prior to final follow up. The average age at time of surgery for patients available for final follow up was 58 years. The average length of follow up was 13.7 years. The average Oxford hip score and WOMAC were 34.8 and 17.8 respectively. The average SF-12 PH was 40.9 and the average SF-12 MH was 54.8.

The Morscher Cup is an acetabular component that is still commonly used in New Zealand. The 13 –15 year results indicate that patients in this study are satisfied with their implant, but there is a lack of published data to compare them to other patient groups who have had a Morscher Cup acetabular component.