Purpose: Resurfacing arthroplasty (RA) is becoming popular as an alternative to total hip arthroplasty (THA). Direct to consumer advertising reports good to excellent outcomes and patients sometimes seek RA on the assumption that it provides increased survivorship over THA. We report the 5 year survivorship of 25 RA procedures done at one institution.

Method: 25 patients were prospectively followed after receiving a Conserve Plus RA through a direct lateral approach between 2002 and 2005. There were 22 males and 3 females with an mean age at surgery of 42 years. The average length of follow-up was 40 months. Failure was defined as revision of the components or a pending revision.

Results: At a mean of 2 years follow-up, 3 patients had been revised and 2 more were scheduled for revision surgery for a failure rate of 20%. Reasons for revision included 1 neck fracture and 2 aseptically loose acetabular components. The 2 patients waiting for revision also had aseptically loose acetabular components. Patients receiving or requiring revision were operated on throughout the series and were not necessarily part of the surgical learning curve.

Conclusion: RA of the hip done through a direct lateral approach in this series had an unacceptably high failure rate for aseptic loosening of the acetabular component.