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Short stems linked with increased risk of femoral fracture after cementless THA
Patients who received a short length tapered-wedge stem during cementless total hip arthroplasty had an increased risk of femoral fracture, according to results published in The Journal of Arthroplasty.
Researchers performed a multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify the independent predictors of intraoperative and early postoperative periprosthetic fractures among 851 hips in 686 patients who underwent direct anterior THA using a stem with a cementless tapered-wedge design and either a short (Taperloc Microplasty, Biomet) or standard (Taperloc, Biomet) length option.
Results showed 2% of patients had a periprosthetic femoral fracture, of which 1.2% occurred intraoperatively and 0.8% occurred postoperatively. Researchers noted a significantly higher occurrence rate of fractures among patients who received short stems vs. standard stems. Stem length was the only predictor of periprosthetic femoral fractures, according to results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis.
“Although the characteristics of our patients should be considered, including sex distribution, body size and diagnosis, the use of a short tapered-wedge stem was associated with the occurrence of periprosthetic femoral fractures in THA through the direct anterior approach in our population,” the authors wrote. – by Casey Tingle
Disclosure s : The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.