Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most successful and cost-effective treatments available for painful hip arthritis. Unfortunately, dislocation following primary THA is one of the most common complications, occurring in approximately 0.50–10percnt; cases. However, there is little literature that investigates the effects that dislocation has on the patient's overall function and satisfaction.

We reviewed 229 THA patients that had sustained dislocation from a prospective database, consisting 156 single dislocations and 73 with two or more. Patient outcomes were compared with a matched control group of 196 patients without dislocation in the same follow-up period. Harris Hip Score (HHS) and patient satisfaction were recorded pre-operatively and at one, five and ten years post-operatively. Mann-Whitney test compared HHS between control and dislocation groups, Chi-Square test compared patient satisfaction and implant survival.

Total HHS and functional component were significantly lower in the dislocation group at one, five and ten years (p<0.05). HHS Pain component revealed a significant difference but only at one and three years (p<0.05). Patient satisfaction only showed a significant difference at one-year review. Dislocation rates were significantly higher in females. Implant survivorship was significantly lower in the dislocation group at 15-years.

Hip-function and implant survival is significantly reduced following prosthesis dislocation, however patient satisfaction and pain levels appear unaffected at long-term follow-up.

The use of Birmingham hip resurfacing (BHR) remains controversial due to the increased revision rate in female patients. We compared the outcomes of BHR in female patients to an age matched total hip arthroplasty(THA) cohort. We reviewed the pain, function and total Harris Hip Scores(HHS), and Kaplan-Meir survivorship for BHR and THA cohorts from a prospective regional arthroplasty database.

There were 234 patients in each cohort, with mean age of 51 years. The BHR cohort had significantly better function and total HHS at all points of the 5-year study, but not for the post-operative pain score. The 5-year revision rate for the BHR cohort was significantly higher than the THA cohort (6.8% vs 3.4%, p=0.001). The main reason for revision in the BHR cohort was aseptic loosening (n=8), followed by metallosis (n=3). The 5-year Kaplan-Meier survivorship was 92.6% (95% CI±1.7%) and 96.4% (95% CI±1.3%) for the BHR and THA cohort (p=0.001).

BHR can give significantly better functional outcomes than THA. The vast majority of female patients were happy with BHR and did not need further surgery at the 5-year stage. This is somewhat at odds with the recent reputation of the procedure. The 10-year result of the same cohort is warranted to provide further data. Our study is not a recommendation to still offer BHR to female patients, but rather to inject a note of realism into the debate. There are implications for future implant development in that these results do validate resurfacing as a functionally valuable option for active patients.