In the last months of 2007 we started to retrospectively review 60 patients who had undergone Girdlestone resection arthroplasty of the hip between 1994 to 2006.

The most frequent indications for this procedure were sepsis around prosthesis, aseptic loosening, pseudoartrhosis after femoral neck fractures or medical compromised patients who had an high risk of hip reimplantation procedure. The evaluation of patient’s satisfaction ranges a lot in literature and no valid guidelines have been publicated.

All our patients were submitted to limb shortening measurement and functional evaluation according to SF-36 score and Harris Hip Score. There were 20 men and 40 women with an average age of 70 years old (range 96-43 years old on operation time), the mean follow up was 133 months (range 14–167 months). Some patients were lost at the follow-up, the main reason was death for related and unrelated causes (overall mortality of 30%).

The aim of this study was to analyze patient’s satisfaction and functional outcomes after Girdlestone arthroplasty which appears in our experience, despite the limits, a valid surgical option in order to improve hip function, decrease or cancel pain and control infections when implantation or reimplantation is not possible.