Abstract
Purpose of study
To determine the onset, incidence and associated symptoms of adverse noise emissions following total hip arthroplasty (THA) with ceramic-on-ceramic (CoC) bearing surfaces
Methods
50 Sequential CoC THA's (45 patients) performed by a single surgeon were interviewed telephonically at an average post-operative period of 12 months. The same group was re-interviewed telephonically 12 months later. Patients who reported noise emissions at either interview were assessed clinically to determine if symptoms could be reproduced.
Results
Of the 45 patients who underwent the first interview, 43 (48 THA's) were re- interviewed. 1 patient had died of an unrelated cause before the second interview, and 2 were not contactable. 2 patients (4%) reported noise emissions at the first interview and 8 (17%) at the second interview. 7 of these 8 patients reported a single or occasional sound. 1 patient reported regular noise emissions and she was the only patient who expressed concern about the noise. None of the patients reported pain or any other symptoms associated with the sound. In none of the cases could the noise be produced during clinical examination. The examiners were unable to demonstrate a correlation between reported noise emissions and radiographic assessment of component orientation.
Discussion
When asked specifically about noise emissions, 17% of the patients in our series reported a noise. The majority of these patients (75%) reported no noises when interviewed initially (1 year following surgery), but did report noise emissions when re-interviewed a year later. The incidence as well as onset of reported noise emissions in our series correlates with those reported by other authors.
NO DISCLOSURES
