Hip replacement involves the use of a socket and a ball for the femoral head. These components could be fixed to the bone either with the help of bone cement (cemented THR) or as a press fit (uncemented THR). Both these techniques have shown good results over 15-20 years follow-up.
Various factors decide the choice between cemented or uncemented technique, namely, the age, the bone quality, cost issues and to some extent also the surgeon’s preference. However, the experience over the last 40 years worldwide seems to show that the press fit (uncemented) technique has given the best results for the cup fixation. So far as the stem is concerned both the techniques have shown good results.
The reasons for failure of this surgery is mainly due to the wear of the polyethylene cup. Hence, in the last 10-15 years there has been a renewed interest in the use of other materials which are wear resistant current computer aided manufacturing technique enable highly polished surfaces that are ideal for this surgery, like Metal-on-Metal and Ceramic-on-Ceramic. These have shown very low wear rates.
|
