Short Stem Hip Arthroplasty With Metha Implant, A Vantage Choice In Young Patients

Introduction Total Hip Arthroplasty, one of the most successfulOrthopaedic surgical procedures carried out for treating the destructivediseases of the hip joint, is still seeking for further development andmodifications in the technique and implant design. Much progress hasbeen made in biological&mechanical designs of the prosthesis for THAof which Short stem prosthesis is a big achievement of the last fewdecades and has preferentially been used in young patients because of itsadvantages like bone sparing, favoring potential revision surgery andminimal invasive approach. However, despite of its ongoing popularityamong the surgeons, the short stem prosthesis is still in the learning curveand uncertainties still exist due to lack of enough research and studies toanalyze and prove its advantages over the conventional prosthesis.Objective To analyze the clinical and radiological outcome of short stemTHA in a group of young patients.Patients and methods The subjects of this prospective study are thepatients who underwent short stem THA in the Department ofOrthopaedics, Joint Surgery Unit of Union Hospital, Wuhan, Chinawithin the year Jan2011-June2012.30hips in29cases of short stemarthroplasty with Metha implant were included in the study with themean age of35.66±6.01years. The post-operative follow-up examinationwas done at an average of13.1±1.59months. Pre and post-operativeclinical and radiological evaluations using Harris Hip Scoring system, Visual Analogue Pain Scale (VAS), Steinberg staging and direct x-rayanalysis were done.Result The cases presented with increased mean HHS from pre-operative48.03±7.97to85.6±8.77points. The VAS (0-10) pain scoremarkedly improved from pre-operative7.4±0.95to post-operative1.33±0.97. Except few cases with mild pain and discomfort, none of thecases presented with loosening, peri-prosthetic fracture or other majorcomplications. Statical analysis by paired t test showed significance p <0.005.Conclusion From this study, we concluded that THA with short stemMetha implantyields a satisfactorily improved post-operative clinicaland radiological outcomewhile also offering unique and notable vantagepoints over conventional prosthesis in young patients, those being bonesparing and allowing minimal invasive approach as well as favoringpotential revision surgery.