The premature failure of the Charnley Elite-Plus stem
- 1 February 2006
- journal article
- Published by British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volume
- Vol. 88 (2), 179-183
- https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620x.88b2.17055
Abstract
We performed a clinical and radiological study to determine the rate of failure of the Charnley Elite-Plus femoral component. Our aim was to confirm or refute the predictions of a previous roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis study in which 20% of the Charnley Elite-Plus stems had shown rapid posterior head migration. It was predicted that this device would have a high early rate of failure. We examined 118 patients at a mean of nine years after hip replacement, including the 19 patients from the original roentgen stereophotogrammetric study. The number of revision procedures was recorded and clinical and radiological examinations were performed. The rate of survival of the femoral stems at ten years was 83% when revision alone was considered to be a failure. It decreased to 59% when a radiologically loose stem was also considered to be a failure. All the patients previously shown in the roentgen stereophotogrammetric study to have high posterior head migration went on to failure. There was a highly significant difference (p = 0.002) in posterior head migration measured at two years after operation between failed and non-failed femoral stems, but there was no significant difference in subsidence between these two groups. Our study has shown that the Charnley Elite-Plus femoral component has an unacceptably high rate of failure. It confirms that early evaluation of new components is important and that roentgen stereophotogrammetric is a good tool for this. Our findings have also shown that rapid posterior head migration is predictive of premature loosening and a better predictor than subsidence.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- THE SWEDISH TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENT REGISTERThe Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery-American Volume, 2002
- Should total hip arthroplasty femoral components be designed to subside?The Journal of Arthroplasty, 2001
- Cement migration after THRThe Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volume, 1999
- Stem fixation in the Charnley low-friction arthroplasty in young patients using an intramedullary bone block.The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volume, 1998
- QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF PATIENTS ABOUT TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENTThe Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volume, 1996
- Migration of the Charnley stem in rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. A roentgen stereophotogrammetric studyThe Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volume, 1995
- Does early micromotion of femoral stem prostheses matter? 4-7-year stereoradiographic follow-up of 84 cemented prosthesesThe Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volume, 1994
- The outcome of Charnley total hip arthroplasty with cement after a minimum twenty-year follow-up. The results of one surgeon.The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, 1993
- Fracture and loosening of Charnley femoral stems. Comparison between first-generation and subsequent designsThe Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volume, 1993
- ???Modes of Failure??? of Cemented Stem-type Femoral ComponentsClinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 1979