Influence of Prosthetic Design on Squeaking after Ceramic-on-Ceramic Total Hip Arthroplasty

Much literature has recently been devoted to the phenomenon of squeaking after total hip arthroplasty using ceramic-on-ceramic bearing components. Squeaky ceramic total hips have received much attention in the recent orthopedic literature. Implant design is one proposed cause of this problem. Between 1999 and 2006, 306 ceramic-on-ceramic THAs were performed in 267 patients by the senior author. We were able to locate 233 of these patients with 270 THAs for completion of a multi-part questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association of squeaking with 12 independent variables including the incidence of squeaking in 4 implant combinations from 4 different orthopedic implant manufacturers: Stryker, Wright Medical, Plus Orthopedics, and Encore Orthopedics.