Patients with severe knee instability remain a surgical challenge. Furthermore, in the presence of extensive bone loss, constrained condylar implants may be unsuitable.

Hinged knee replacements have served an important role in the management of such complex knee pathologies.

A combined prospective and retrospective study of 138 consecutive hinge knee arthroplasties (42 primary and 96 revisions) of 8 different models performed in our institution between 2004 and 2010 at a mean follow up of 4.2years.

Outcomes were reviewed and knee scores preoperatively and postoperatively at 1, 2 and 5 years using the American knee scoring system.

The mean preoperative American knee score of 31 improved to 87 postoperatively.

Complication rate was 19%, 15% of which required re-revisions for: loosening (4%), Infection (4%), periprosthetic fracture (3%), Implant fracture (2%), Component disassembly (1%) and dislocation (1%). Overall implant failure rate was 9% and implant survivorship was greater than 80% at 4 years.

In our study, hinge prostheses provided good stability and symptom relief with a lower complication rate compared to some previous studies.

In addition, we believe hinge prostheses can also serve as reasonable alternatives to amputation and arthrodesis in many complex knees cases.

Thromboprophylaxis is of particular interest to the NHS due to the number of deaths from preventable hospital-acquired venous thrombo-embolism, considerable treatment cost and related long-term morbidities.

In compliance with current NICE guidelines, our departmental protocol for chemical thromboprophylaxis changed from aspirin to clexane.

We present a review of the use of both these chemical agents in our hip fracture patients; assessing duration of wound ooze, incidence of symptomatic PE and DVT and thrombocytopaenia.

Prospective study of surgically treated hip fractures patients on chemical thromboprophylaxis postoperatively over a 7 month period.

Of 224 patients reviewed, 110 fitted our inclusion criteria; 78 on Clexane and 32 on aspirin. Mean patient age: 82.6 years(48–100). Mean hospital stay: 30d ays(6–80). Female predominance (3:1). Mean duration of wound ooze: 6.9 days (1–24) for aspirin and 5.6 days (0–15) for clexane. Symptomatic DVTs: 1(3%) for aspirin and 3(3.8%) for clexane. Symptomatic PE: 0 for aspirin and 1(1.3%) for clexane. Thrombocytopenia: 0 for both groups. Mean duration of wound ooze for both groups was approximately 1 week. Low but significant incidence of thrombo-embolism.

Thromboembolism-deterrent-stockings were observed to be unreliable mainly due to skin problems and compliance.