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Revision Hip Arthroplasty: Infection is the Most Common Cause of Failure

  • Symposium: Papers Presented at the 2009 Meeting of the Musculoskeletal Infection Society
  • Published:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®

Abstract

Background

Revision total hip arthroplasty (THA), although relieving pain and restoring function, fails in some patients. In contrast to failures in primary THA, the frequency of the causes of failure in revision THA has been less well established.

Questions/purposes

We therefore determined the rate of each failure mode and the survivorship of revision THAs.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 1366 revision THAs performed between 2000 and 2007. There were 609 (44.5%) men and 757 (55.5%) women with a mean age of 66 years. The indications for the revision surgery were mainly aseptic loosening (51%), instability (15%), wear (14%), and infection (8%). The minimum followup was 1 day (mean, 5.5 years; range, 1 day to 9 years).

Results

Two hundred fifty-six of the revisions (18.7%) failed with an average time to failure of 16.6 months (range, 1 day to 7.5 years). Among 256 failed hips, infection was the most common cause of failure (30.2%) followed by instability (25.1%) and aseptic loosening (19.4%). At 5 years, the survivorships of septic and aseptic groups were 67% and 84.8%, respectively. Revision for infection or instability appears to have a considerably lower survivorship when compared to revision for aseptic causes.

Conclusions

The lower survivorship of revision for infection or instability highlights the importance of implementing better preventative methods that can minimize the impact of these two major causes of failure.

Level of Evidence

Level III, therapeutic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University, 925 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA

    S. Mehdi Jafari MD, Catelyn Coyle BA, Peter F. Sharkey MD & Javad Parvizi MD, FRCS

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Imam University Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, End of keshavarz Blvd, Tehran, 1419733141, Iran

    S. M. Javad Mortazavi MD

Authors
  1. S. Mehdi Jafari MD
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  2. Catelyn Coyle BA
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  3. S. M. Javad Mortazavi MD
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  4. Peter F. Sharkey MD
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  5. Javad Parvizi MD, FRCS
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Javad Parvizi MD, FRCS.

Additional information

Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

Each author certifies that his or her institution approved the human protocol for this investigation, and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research.

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Jafari, S.M., Coyle, C., Mortazavi, S.M.J. et al. Revision Hip Arthroplasty: Infection is the Most Common Cause of Failure. Clin Orthop Relat Res 468, 2046–2051 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-010-1251-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-010-1251-6

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