Perioperative Outcomes and Complications After Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty in Patients With Disproportionately Short Stature: A Matched Cohort Analysis

This study compared (1) perioperative outcomes, (2) postoperative complications, and (3) reoperation rates after primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) between short stature patients and matched control patients.

A review of primary THA patients from 2012 to 2017 using an institutional database was conducted. This yielded 12,850 patients of which 108 were shorter than 148 cm. These patients were matched 1:1 by age (P = .527), gender (P = .664), and body mass index (P = .240) to controls. The final study population with minimum 1-year follow-up that was included for analysis comprised 47 patients in the short stature cohort and 57 patients in the control cohort. The following outcomes/complications were compared: operative times, lengths of stay (LOSs), intraoperative fractures, minor complications, 90-day readmissions, and revisions.

Operative times were significantly longer in the short stature cohort than in the matched control cohort (133 ± 65 minutes vs 104 ± 30 minutes, P = .005). In addition, hospital LOS was slightly longer in the short stature group than in the matched control groups (3.2 ± 1.5 days vs 2.6 ± 1.0, P = .017). Rates of intraoperative fractures (P = 1.000), minor complications P = .406), 90-day readmissions (P = .5000), and revision (P = .202) were similar between the short stature and control cohorts.

Patients with disproportionately short stature had longer operative times and slight longer LOS. However, complication and readmission rates were similar. Future studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to confirm these findings and further evaluate implant survivorship in this unique THA patient population.