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Flexible buffer may add no benefit to hip hemiarthroplasty for intracapsular fractures
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LIVERPOOL, United Kingdom — Elderly patients with intracapsular hip fractures did well following hemiarthroplasty performed with or without use of a medical grade polycarbonate-urethane acetabular buffer device, according to findings presented at the British Orthopaedic Association Annual Meeting, here.
“Both groups did well, and there was no significant advantage to this buffer,” Leela C. Biant, FRCSEd(Tr & Orth), MS, of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, in the United Kingdom, said during her presentation of the randomized controlled trial.
The Tribofit Hip System (Active Implants), which was the buffer used, was studied to see if it would provide patients with the function of total hip replacement without the lengthy full procedure, according to Biant.
The technique to implant the buffer involved no bone reaming, only denuding the acetabular articular cartilage and cutting a groove to place the device, she said.
In all, 98 patients older than 70 years who were cognitively intact were block randomized to either undergo hemiarthroplasty with the buffer or the control treatment of bipolar hemiarthroplasty.
At 2-years minimum follow-up, “they had a general functional decline, as you would expect in time, but there were no significant differences in deaths, total Harris Hip score in total, or in pain scores from Harris Hip; no difference in Oxford Hip Score or the pain or function elements of the VAS or EQ-5D,” Biant said.
Three complications occurred, but were distributed throughout both groups.
Biant and colleagues wondered if they perhaps had a beta error in the results, but Biant said they added in the results of a similar group of patients treated in Bologna with the buffer, and the results were similar. – by Susan M. Rapp
Reference:
Moran M, et al. Paper #328. Presented at: British Orthopaedic Association Annual Congress; Sept. 15-18, 2015; Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Disclosure: Biant reports no relevant financial disclosures.