Published online Apr 18, 2020. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v11.i4.232
Peer-review started: October 29, 2019
First decision: December 12, 2019
Revised: December 19, 2019
Accepted: March 12, 2020
Article in press: March 12, 2020
Published online: April 18, 2020
Processing time: 167 Days and 6.5 Hours
Total hip replacement is considered as one of the most successful procedures in orthopedic surgery. The length of the femoral stem is one of the most important geometrical and mechanical characteristics of the prosthesis. The use of short stems started more than 30 years ago.
Clinical studies, meta-analysis as well as comparative studies have shown similar survival rate between conventional and short stems. However, for most short stems the available data is controversial regarding short or medium term results. Several different implants have been currently available, classified in different categories. Yet, the existing literature regarding clinical results is limited to some of these implants.
Our aim is to report the short-term clinical and radiological results of a novel squared section, tapered design –with four conicity- short stem in total hip replacement.
This is a report of a prospectively collected data of 61 consecutive patients undergone total hip replacement using the MINIMA® short stem (Lima Corporate, Udine, Italy) with a minimum follow-up time of 1 year.
The mean time of follow-up was of 33.4 mo (2.8 years) with a range of 12-57 months (1-4.8 years). Apart from a deep vein thrombosis in one patient at 6 weeks postoperatively, no other complications such us revision, infection, hip dislocation, peri-prosthetic fracture were appeared. Additionally, the functional outcomes, pain score and satisfaction rate were significantly improved at the postoperative follow- up period. The femoral stem was classified as stable bone ingrowth in all patients. No radiolucent lines were observed in any of the modified seven zones of Gruen in anteroposterior and lateral views. Regarding the femoral component, no radiolucent lines were observed in any zones according to DeLee and Charnley.
The clinical and radiological results of our study are considered as excellent, without major complications and the follow-up in 56.9% of our patients is more than 3 years.
Further research based on well designed studies with longer follow-up examination need to be performed, in order to elucidate the efficacy of short stems.