Purpose of the study: The extramedullary anatomy of the femur must be reproduced during total hip arthroplasty in order to ensure correct tension on the gluteus muscles. This requires:
correct offset of the femur, measured as the distance between the center of the head and the anatomic axis of the shaft;
offset of the center of rotation, measured as the distance between the center of the head and the pubic symphesis. Addition of these two offsets gives the overall offset. The purpose of this work was to analyze postoperative offset after standard total hip arthroplasty as a function of the preoperative head-shaft angle.
Material and methods: Prospective study of 150 files of patients who underwent first-intention total hip arthroplasty. A prosthesis with matched increasing head size was implanted. The head-shaft angle was 135°. Mean offset was 41.7 mm (range 33–47 mm) for the 0 head-neck. The preoperative neck-shaft angle was measured on the upright ap view (comparable rotation of the two hemipelvi). Pre- and postoperative femur and center of rotation offset were noted.
Results: The preoperative neck-shaft angle varied from 118° to 1400. Mean preoperative femur offset was 40.2 mm (range 29–52 mm). Mean postoperative femur offset was 42.2 mm. This gave a 2 mm lateralization of the femur, which was apparently negligible, favorable, and therefore satisfactory. Mean offset was 90.5 mm preoperatively and 84.5 mm postoperatively, medializing the center of rotation 6°. Mean overall offset was thus displaced medially (6 mm minus 2 mm = 4 mm). This was considered acceptable. Among these 150 files, 24 were coxa vara hips with a neck-shaft angle 125°. For these 25 coxavara hips, the mean preoperative femur offset was 44.5 mm. The mean postoperative femur offset was 42.2 mm. This produced, inversely, a medial displacement of the postoperative femur offset of 2.3 mm. The center of rotation was displace medially 6 mm. Thus globally the medial displacement was 6 mm plus 2.3 mm = 8.3 mm. This appeared to be excessive.
Discussion: The postoperative offset of the femur is prosthesis-dependent. The majority of implants currently marketed have a mean offset in the 40–45mm range. The offset of the center of rotation is operator-dependent: as the acetabular reaming is accentuated, the center of rotation is displaced medially. Acetabular reaming is necessary to reach the subchondral bone. The medial offset can be limited but at least some displacement is inevitable. Thus in the event of a coxavara hip, it is very difficult to limit excessive overall medial offset when using a standard prosthesis. If the goal is to mimic the anatomic femur offset, it would appear justified to use prostheses with a smaller neck-shaft angle for patients with coxavara. A 10° reduction, from 135° to 125° would increase the femur offset 5 mm and thus enable reproduction of the preoperative anatomy.
