Primary fixation in uncemented Total Hip Replacement (THR) is achieved by implanting an appropriately sized stem. Last year, in our pilot study, we classified undersizing & reported the incidence of subsidence & radiolucent lines (RLL) in undersized uncemented stems. Now we report on a larger cohort of patients, reporting undersizing and its association with radiolucent lines and subsidence. Secondarily we report on the effect of using a collar, patients' BMI, and in a smaller group the five-year failure rate. A retrospective review of electronic records of 1337 cases who underwent THR using the Corail stem was carried out. 1204 (Collared 1042, Uncollared 162) had a minimum follow up of 1 year, 693 of those had a follow up of at least 5 years. Radiological review was carried out by 2 independent investigators.Introduction
Methods
Undersizing of an uncemented femoral stem is a post-operative description of a radiograph with unclear clinical importance. It may not always translate into a suboptimal clinical outcome. To describe a novel classification system of undersizing in a fully hydroxyapatite coated femoral implant, assess if it could be reliably reported between observers, and describe a simple way to assess the degree of undersizing on an AP radiograph.Introduction
Aim