The risk of revision after total hip arthroplasty in young patients depends on surgical approach, femoral head size and bearing type; an analysis of 19,682 operations in the Dutch arthroplasty register

Background

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is used increasingly in younger patients. There is little knowledge about the effect of THA characteristics on risk of revision, especially in young patients. Therefore, we studied the influence of both patient-related and surgical factors on the risk of revision using data from the Dutch Arthroplasty Registry (LROI).

Methods

All patients younger than 55 years with a primary THA implanted in the Netherlands between 2007 and 2017 were selected (n = 19,682). The covariates age, sex, primary diagnosis, ASA-classification, surgical approach, fixation method, bearing type, head size and year of surgery were entered into Cox proportional hazards models to calculate hazard ratios for the risk of revision.

Results

The overall 5-year survival of primary THA was 95.3% (95% CI, 94.9–95.6). Use of the anterior approach resulted in a lower risk of revision than the use of the posterolateral approach (HR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.47–0.92). THAs with a head diameter ≥ 38 mm had a higher risk of revision (HR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.33–2.72) than THAs with 32 mm heads. Use of MoM bearings resulted in an increased risk when compared to C-PE (HR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.27–2.43).

Conclusion

The risk of revision in patients younger than 55 years depends on surgical approach, head size and bearing type. The anterior approach resulted in a decreased risk of revision, whereas use of ≥38 mm heads and MoM bearings resulted in an increased risk of revision for any reason.