Introduction:. Uncemented acetabular component fixation has been considered the most reliable fixation method in contemporary metal-on-metal hip resurfacing arthroplasty (HRA). During prospective long-term follow-up of a HRA device, we have encountered a surprisingly high incidence of this complication and wish to alert surgeons and manufacturers of this problem. Methods:. The study group was comprised of all 373 HRAs performed by a single surgeon using this hybrid hip resurfacing implant from May 2001 to March 2005. The acetabular component features a dual-coated bone ingrowth surface of plasma-sprayed titanium plus hydroxylappatite. There were a total of 34 revisions identified at the time of this study. Results:. There were 5 other cases (1.3%) of late acetabular loosening all occurring greater than 8 years postoperatively at an average of 9 ± 1 years after the primary surgery. All of theses patients were functioning well with radiographically stable implants for at least 8 years. Intraoperative findings included debonding of large portions of the porous coating which remained adhered to the underlying bone. We concluded that these cases represented primary mechanical implant failures. There was a moderate amount of wear debris, presumably from the backside. There was no bone loss evident. There were no soft tissue masses. There were also 2 cases of adverse wear failure with pain and soft tissue masses diagnosed preoperatively with well-fixed implants. One of these patients also suffered component debonding prior to revision. Two (2/5; 40%) cases had an acetabular inclination angle ≥50°. Implant Debonding accounted for 5/8 (63%) of all acetabular failures and 14.7% (5/34) of all failures, while failure of ingrowth caused only 1/34 (3%) and adverse wear failures accounted for only 6% (2/34) of all failures. Conclusion:. We recommend that manufacturers re-evaluate the fixation strength of their own particular methods of bonding titanium plasma spray to a cobalt-chrome substrate, particularly in regards to fatigue failure and that they make improvements to ensure a longer duration of bone-implant fixation

Aims. To establish our early clinical results of a new total knee arthroplasty (TKA) tibial component introduced in 2013 and compare it to other designs in use at our hospital during the same period. Methods. This is a retrospective study of 166 (154 patients) consecutive cemented, fixed bearing, posterior-stabilized (PS) TKAs (ATTUNE) at one hospital performed by five surgeons. These were compared with a reference cohort of 511 knees (470 patients) of other designs (seven manufacturers) performed at the same hospital by the same surgeons. There were no significant differences in age, sex, BMI, or follow-up times between the two cohorts. The primary outcome was revision performed or pending. Results. In total, 19 (11.5%) ATTUNE study TKAs have been revised at a mean 30.3 months (SD 15), and loosening of the tibial component was seen in 17 of these (90%). Revision is pending in 12 (7%) knees. There was no difference between the 31 knees revised or with revision pending and the remaining 135 study knees in terms of patient characteristics, type of bone cement (p = 0.988), or individual surgeon (p = 0.550). In the reference cohort, there were significantly fewer knees revised (n = 13, 2.6%) and with revision pending (n = 8, 1.5%) (both p < 0.001), and only two had loosening of the tibial component as the reason for revision. Conclusion. This new TKA design had an unexpectedly high early rate of revision compared with our reference cohort of TKAs. Debonding of the tibial component was the most common reason for failure. Additional longer-term follow-up studies of this specific component and techniques for implantation are warranted. The version of the ATTUNE tibial component implanted in this study has undergone modifications by the manufacturer. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2021;103-B(6 Supple A):137–144

Abstract

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a common orthopaedic procedure with over 1,500 done in 2016 in Ireland alone. 96% of all TKAs are due to pain in the knee associated with osteoarthritis. According to the UK National Joint Registry (NJR), there is a 0.47%, 1.81%, 2.63% and 4.34% probability risk of undergoing a revision TKA within one, three, five and ten years respectively post-index surgery. A variety of reasons for failure of TKA have been described in the literature including infection, aseptic loosening, pain, instability, implant wear, mal-alignment, osteolysis, dislocation, peri-prosthetic fracture and implant fracture. The NexGen Posterior Stabilised Fixed has NJR revision rates of 0.44%, 1.61% and 2.54% at years one, three and five respectively. A retrospective review was carried out of 350 NexGen TKAs that were performed directly by, or under the supervision of, a fellowship trained arthroplasty surgeon in a dedicated orthopaedic hospital between April 2013 and December 2015. 26 (7.4%) of these were revised as of 31 December 2017. Three were for septic arthritis with the remaining 23 (6.6%) for aseptic loosening. Patients typically started to experience symptoms of medial tibial pain with supra-patellar swelling from a combination of effusion and synovial thickening at 12–24 months. Inflammatory markers were normal in all cases. Radiographs of symptomatic knee replacements showed bone loss on the medial tibia with a tilt of the tibial component into a varus alignment. The high number of revisions of this particular prosthetic has led to its use being discontinued at this centre.

Femoral offset restoration is related to low rates of wear and dislocation. Replication of the native hip anatomy improves prosthesis survival, whereas increasing the femoral offset elevates the torque stresses, thus inducing a risk of suboptimal stem fixation.

Although the Corail (DePuy Synthes, St Priest, France) uncemented stem has an excellent record of fixation, an unexpectedly number of aseptic loosenings has been noted in our institution.

We sought to characterize the clinical parameters observed in a group of patients who have experienced metaphyseal aseptic loosenings with the collarless version of the Corail uncemented femoral component; describe the radiographic findings in this group of patients; expose the intraoperative findings in the cases that needed revision surgery and to calculate a possible frequency of this complication.

We present a series of 15 metaphyseal debondings of the collarless version of the Corail uncemented stem in primary total hip arthroplasty. Eleven men and four woman with an average age of 60 years old (range: 42 to 81 years old) and a previous history of osteoarthritis presented with thigh pain and limping at an average of 33 months postoperative (range: 5 to 100 months). Seven cases presented a Dorr´s classification type A femur and 8 cases a type B femur. In 10 of the 15 cases a 36 mm ceramic on ceramic bearing surface was implanted and in 5 a 28 mm diameter ceramic on polyethylene pair. Radiographic assessment of the failures evidenced an increase in femoral offset of 6.2 mm in average (range: 0 to 17 mm). Nine of the 15 cases had a standard offset stem and 3 an extended offset stem. Leg length discrepancy was in average 2.4 mm (range: 0 to 8 mm). None of the failures presented a more than 2 mm subsidence. Alignment of these stems was in average 2.1 degrees of varus (range: 0 to 5 degrees).

Six cases were revised to a long cemented or uncemented stem, 2 cases were lost and 7 cases are awaiting revision surgery. Although the incidence of this complication was low (15 failures in 855 cases in 10 years = 1.75%), we are concerned about the real magnitude of this problem, as this mode of failure was observed up to 8 years after implantation.

Enhanced lateralization of the hip, independently of the type of stem, may have played a role in the infrequent early failures of this popular design. Routine use of “fine tunning” preoperative planning in order to avoid offset enhancement is strongly reccommended, as this was the only suspected factor that was present in almost all the failures we observed.

[Introduction]

One of the modern design total knee arthroplasty (TKA) system, the NexGen Legacy posterior-stabilized (LPS) Flex prosthesis, has been in use at our hospital since 2001. Between 2006 and 2011, NexGen LPS-Flex primary TKA were mainly performed in combination with a cemented short-keeled minimally invasive version tibial tray (MIS tibial component) instead of the traditional NexGen stemmed tibial tray. We observed some cases required early revision of isolated tibial component in primary TKA performed in this period. Therefore, our objectives were to report the series of this revision cases and to consider this failure mechanism.

Introduction

Metal ion and particle release, particularly cobalt, has become an important subject in total hip arthroplasty, as it has shown to induce metal hypersensitivity, adverse local tissue reactions and systemic ion related diseases. The purpose of the following study was compare the ion release barrier function of a zirconium nitride (ZrN) multilayer coated hip stem for cemented use, designed for patients with metal ion hypersensitivity, against its uncoated version in a test configuration simulating the worst case scenario of a severely debonded hip stem. The ZrN multilayer coating is applied on a CoCrMo hip stem and consists of a thin adhesive chromium layer, five alternating intermediate layers out of chromium nitride (CrN) and chromium carbonitride (CrCN) and a final zirconium nitride (ZrN) shielding layer [1].

In clinical studies of cemented total hip arthroplasty (THA), polished stems produce less slippage at the bone-cement interface than roughened stems. Our objective is to assess the effect of stem-cement debonding on the bone-cement interface shear behaviour of hip implants using simplified axisymmetric stem-cement-aluminum models.

We emulated the femoral stems using stainless steel tapered plugs with either a rough (i.e. bonded) or smooth (i.e. unbonded) surface finish. Three different taper angles (5°, 7.5°, 10°) were used for the unbonded constructs. Non-tapered and tapered (7.5°) aluminum shells were used to emulate the diaphyseal and metaphyseal segments of the femur. In all cases, the cement-aluminum interface was designed to have the same shear strength as has been reported for bone-cement interfaces (~8 MPa). The test involved applying axial compressive loading at a rate of 0.02 mm/s until failure. Six specimens were tested for each combination of the parameters.

The unbonded stems sustained about twice as much load as the bonded stem, regardless of taper angle, and the metaphyseal model carried 35-50% greater loads than the diaphyseal models before shear failure or slippage. The unbonded constructs reached peak load with excessive displacement due to creep of the cement mantle while the bonded constructs failed in shear at the cement-aluminum interface. This result supports the hypothesis that the wedging forces created in the unbonded construct increase the compression forces across the aluminum-cement interface, thereby increasing its shear resistance. A finite element analysis predicted that the cement could withstand the hoop stress under these loading circumstances and this prediction was confirmed by visual inspection of the cement after each test.

Our results suggest that smooth or unbonded stems should sustain less slippage and shear damage at the bone-cement interface than roughened or bonded stems due to the wedge-induced compressive stress; this increased load capacity will be particularly valuable when the condition of the bone-cement interface is suboptimal.

Aims

The purpose of this study was to assess mid-term survivorship following primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) with Optetrak Logic components and identify the most common revision indications at a single institution.

Background. There are case series of debonding of the ATTUNE® tibial component introduced in 2013. We studied the early clinical results of this total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and compared it to other designs at one hospital. Methods. This is a retrospective study of 223 consecutive, non-randomized, cemented fixed-bearing posterior-stabilized ATTUNE® TKAs at one hospital by 5 surgeons from 2013 through 2017. We excluded 4 knees with early infection and 53 with follow-up less than 6 months. Of 166 TKAs reviewed, the mean patient age was 63.8 years, mean BMI 32, and mean follow-up 25 months. We compared this to a “control” cohort of 511 TKAs of other manufacturers performed at the same hospital. The endpoints were revision performed and revision pending. Results. Nineteen (11.5%) ATTUNE® knees have been revised and revision is pending in 12 (7%) knees, at a mean of 30 months. Tibial component loosening was seen in 17 (90%) revised knees. There was no difference between knees revised or revision pending and unrevised knees in patient demographics, cement used (p=0.84), or attending surgeon (p=0.55). In the “control” cohort, there were 13 (2.6%) knees revised (p<0.0001) and revision pending in 8 (1.5%) (p<0.0001), and only 2 had tibial loosening as the reason for revision. Conclusion. This cemented TKA design had an unexpected high early rate of revision. Debonding of the tibial component was the most common reason for failure. Additional longer-term follow-up studies of this component and techniques for implantation are warranted

The original forged Müller straight stem (CoNiCr) has shown excellent ten- to 15-year results. We undertook a long-term survival analysis with special emphasis on radiological changes within a 20-year period of follow-up. In all, 165 primary total hip replacements, undertaken between July 1984 and June 1987 were followed prospectively. Clinical follow-up included a standardised clinical examination, and radiological assessment was based on a standardised anteroposterior radiograph of the pelvis, which was studied for the presence of osteolysis, debonding and cortical atrophy. Survival of the stem with revision for any reason was 81% (95% confidence interval (CI), 76 to 86) at 20 years and for aseptic loosening 87% (95% CI, 82 to 90). At the 20-year follow-up, 15 of the surviving 36 stems showed no radiological changes. Debonding (p = 0.005), osteolysis (p = 0.003) and linear polyethylene wear (p = 0.016) were associated with aseptic loosening, whereas cortical atrophy was not associated with failure (p = 0.008). The 20-year results of the Müller straight stem are comparable to those of other successful cemented systems with similar follow-up. Radiological changes are frequently observed, but with a low incidence of progression, and rarely result in revision. Cortical atrophy appears to be an effect of ageing and not a sign of loosening of the femoral component

Purpose: The effect of cemented total hip arthroplasty (THA) stem surface finish and geometry on clinical outcomes is controversial. This is the first report of results from a multi-center study evaluating a cemented, polished, triple-tapered prosthesis. Methods: Two-hundred-seventeen C-Stems (DePuy, Warsaw, IN, USA) were implanted consecutively at three centers. Hips with 2-year minimum A-P radiographs receiving prospective clinical and independent retrospective radiographic examinations were included. Seven patients (9 hips) died and two had early revisions (one trauma-induced loosening; one due to poor cement technique). Of 206 hips remaining, 162 reached minimum follow-up. Cement-mantle grade, subsidence, stem-cement radiolucency, femoral osteolysis, and Harris Hip Score (HHS) were recorded annually. Results: Mean age was 70 years (range 39–100). Of the 162 patients evaluated, 103 were female and 59 male. There were 17 deaths (20 hips) after minimum follow-up. Mean radiographic follow-up was 4 years (range: 2–6). At last follow-up, the mean HHS was 88 (range: 44–100). Cement-mantle grades were: A(27%), B(49%), C1(6%), C2(14%) and undetermined(4%). No stem subsidence greater than 2mm was observed. Debonding more than 1mm was noted in 6 hips (4%), including one cement fracture. Of 3 hips (2%) with femoral osteolysis, two instances were exclusively in proximal zones. Conclusions: Excellent to good results were obtained in this multi-center, cemented, triple-tapered THA stem series. Radiographic results were similar to published results from other successful stems sharing these features. Further research is warranted to determine whether long-term results compare favorably to others designed to resist subsidence and loosening

Objective: To examine the effect of varying the thickness of the cement mantle on the strain distribution near the bone-cement interface. Background: An insufficient cement mantle is thought to generate cement fractures near the bone-cement interface. Debonding at the bone-cement interface may accompany such fractures, and, mechanical failure of the prosthesis may follow. In this study, we aim to analyse the relationship between the cement mantle thickness and the acetabular strain distribution near the bone-cement interface. Experimental model: Four hemi-pelvic saw bones specimens were implanted with six protected precision strain gauges. All specimens were prepared to receive a 53/28 cemented polyethylene cup (Depuy Charnley Elite). Methods: We simulated hip joint force relative to the cup during normal walking for quasi-static tests on an Instron 1603 testing machine. The magnitude of the maximum and minimum principal strains, and the orientation of the maximum principal strains were calculated based on the readings of strains from a 32 channel digital acquisition system. Results: Statistically significant differences in the total strains per gait cycle (p< 0.001) have been noted at all gauge locations. In the principal load bearing quadrants, the recorded tensile strains are reduced by 50% as a result of the thicker mantle, while the transmission of compressive strain is enhanced. Conclusion: A cement mantle thickness of 5-6mm may preserve the structural integrity of the principal load bearing quadrants of the acetabulum better than a mantle thickness of 2-3mm, by minimising the acetabu-lar strains. This maybe desirable in total hip replacements for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, where the poorer quality bone can be assisted by recruitment of a larger surface area to participate in load bearing. Keywords: Principal strains; Cement mantle; Mantle thickness; Bone-cement interface; Acetabular strains

Introduction Debonding at the cement-prosthesis interface leading to stem movement and abrasion, has been proposed as initiating events in aseptic loosening of cemented total hip arthroplasties. A polished tapered or an absolutely stable stem possibly minimises this risk. This study evaluated a cemented, precoated femoral stem for stable fixation. Methods The study included 24 patients, mean age of 64 years (48 to 78) undergoing single total hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis. All were treated with cemented Definition (Stryker) stems which are straight, chromium-cobalt, with an integrated proximal polymethylmethacrylate mantle. One surgeon using fourth generation cementation techniques performed all surgeries. UHMWPE cups and Zirconia heads were used. At the time of surgery, tantalum markers were inserted into the femur, cement and stem for Radiostereometric analysis (RSA) of migration. Measurements were performed at two, 12 and 24 months intervals. Standard radiographs and Harris Hip Scores were obtained post-operatively and at two years. Results During the first two years post-operatively the stems were shown to be absolutely fixed within the cement mantle and the mantle itself stable with the femur. At two years the mean subsidence of the stem in relation to the femur was 0.00 mm (SD 0.1), while the cement mantle subsided 0.2 mm (SD 0.2) in relation to the femur. The femoral head mean rotation was 0.02 retroversion. Postoperative radiolucent lines of > 1 mm where present in a mean of 1.4% (0 to 5%) of the cement-bone interfaces. This remained unchanged at two years (0 to 3%). Stems were in average positioned 0.8 in varus (1.2 valgus to 4.0 varus). Harris Hip Scores improved from a mean of 46 (23 to 68) pre-operatively to 93 (57 to 100) at two years. Conclusions This is the first stem where no migration could be detected during the first two years. These results so far indicate good long-term performance of this precoated stem

Aims

The primary aim of this study was to determine the ten-year outcome following surgical treatment for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). We assessed whether the evolution of practice from open to arthroscopic techniques influenced outcomes and tested whether any patient, radiological, or surgical factors were associated with outcome.

Recently, femoroacetabular impingement has been recognised as a cause of early osteoarthritis. There are two mechanisms of impingement: 1) cam impingement caused by a non-spherical head and 2) pincer impingement caused by excessive acetabular cover. We hypothesised that both mechanisms result in different patterns of articular damage. Of 302 analysed hips only 26 had an isolated cam and 16 an isolated pincer impingement. Cam impingement caused damage to the anterosuperior acetabular cartilage with separation between the labrum and cartilage. During flexion, the cartilage was sheared off the bone by the non-spherical femoral head while the labrum remained untouched. In pincer impingement, the cartilage damage was located circumferentially and included only a narrow strip. During movement the labrum is crushed between the acetabular rim and the femoral neck causing degeneration and ossification.

Both cam and pincer impingement lead to osteoarthritis of the hip. Labral damage indicates ongoing impingement and rarely occurs alone.

The aim of this study was to obtain detailed long-term data on the cement-bone interface in patients with cemented stems, implanted using the constrained fixation technique. A total of eight stems were removed together with adjacent bone during post-mortem examinations of patients with well-functioning prostheses. Specimens were cut at four defined levels, contact radiographs were obtained for each level, and slices were prepared for histological analysis. Clinical data, clinical radiographs, contact radiographs and histological samples were examined for signs of loosening and remodelling. The mean radiological follow-up was 9.6 years and all stems were well-fixed, based on clinical and radiological criteria. Contact radiographs revealed an incomplete cement mantle but a complete filling of the medullary canal for all implants. Various amounts of polyethylene particles were evident at the cement-bone interface of seven stems, with no accompanying inflammatory reaction. Cortical atrophy and the formation of an ‘inner cortex’ were confirmed in six of eight stems by contact radiographs and histology, but were only visible on two clinical radiographs.

Our results confirm that a complete cement mantle is not essential for the survival of Müller straight stems into the mid term, and support our hypothesis that no benefit to long-term survival can be expected from modern cementing techniques.

We present the medium-term results of hybrid total hip arthroplasties using pre-coated stems with a second-generation cementing technique. The 128 hips in 111 patients (18 men and 93 women) were followed up at a mean of 11 years after surgery. The mean age at the time of surgery was 61 years. Both components of one hip were removed at ten months after surgery for infection. None of the other 127 femoral components showed possible, probable, or definite loosening at the most recent follow-up. Five acetabular components were revised for aseptic loosening, recurrent dislocation, or displacement of the polyethylene liner from the metal shell. The mean Harris hip score at follow-up was 84 points. A pre-coated femoral component with a second-generation cementing technique provides good clinical function and survival in the medium term.

There have been considerable recent advances in the understanding and management of femoroacetabular impingement and associated labral and chondral pathology. We have developed a classification system for acetabular chondral lesions. In our system, we use the six acetabular zones previously described by Ilizaliturri et al. The cartilage is then graded on a scale of 0 to 4 as follows: grade 0, normal articular cartilage lesions; grade 1, softening or wave sign; grade 2, cleavage lesion; grade 3, delamination; and grade 4, exposed bone. The site of the lesion is further classed as A, B or C based on whether the lesion is less than one-third of the distance from the acetabular rim to the cotyloid fossa, one-third to two-thirds of the same distance and greater than two-thirds of the distance, respectively. In order to validate the classification system, six surgeons graded ten video recordings of hip arthroscopy.

Our findings showed a high intra-observer reliability of the classification system with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.81 and a high interobserver reliability with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.88.

We have developed a simple reproducible classification system for lesions of the acetabular cartilage, which it is hoped will allow standardised documentation to be made of damage to the articular cartilage, particularly that associated with femoroacetabular impingement.

The outcome of a cemented hip arthroplasty is partly dependent on the type of cement which is used. The production of an interface gap between the stem and the cement mantle as a result of shrinkage of the cement, may be a factor involved. Palacos R, Palacos LV (both with gentamicin), CMW 1, CMW 2, CMW Endurance (CMWE) and Simplex were prepared under vacuum and allowed to cure overnight in similar cylinders. The next day this volume was determined by the displacement of water. Shrinkage varied between 3.82% and 7.08% with CMWE having the lowest and Palacos LV the highest. This could be a factor to consider when choosing a cement for a shape-closed stem.