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Orthopaedic Proceedings
Vol. 99-B, Issue SUPP_4 | Pages 20 - 20
1 Feb 2017
Horne D Grostefon J Hunt C Della Valle C Schmalzried T
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Introduction

The benefits of femoral head-neck modularity in hip surgery have been recognized for decades. However, reports of head/neck taper fretting & corrosion has led to research being conducted, yet the clinical effect of these processes remains unclear. Whilst femoral head size, material and the characteristics of the taper have been a focus of research, potential contributing variables such as in vivo head-neck assembly technique on the performance of these connections is not clear. We performed an observational study to investigate variation in femoral head-neck taper assembly during surgery, with the initial focus being the number of head impactions.

Methods

From May 2013 to October 2014, nineteen surgeons who specialized in hip surgery from a wide demographic (North America, Europe and Asia) participated in a video review on current surgical practice in total hip arthroplasty (THA). The surgeons were unaware of any specific parameter, including taper assembly, which would subsequently be analyzed. Twenty-seven THA surgeries were reviewed against a specific set of questions relating to factors in the modular femoral head-neck assembly process. The focus of the current study was the number of impaction blows to seat the modular femoral head on the implanted stem.