Evidence of Safety, Efficacy in Hip Implants Lacking

A systematic literature review in BMJ found that most British orthopaedists use hip prostheses that have a solid evidence base. However, almost one in four hip-prosthesis brands available to UK surgeons have no evidence to support their use, and 8% of all hip prostheses implanted in 2011 had no safety or efficacy evidence available. The authors say the difficulty of running randomized controlled trials with orthopaedic implants “may…have contributed to the paucity of good quality evidence in this sphere.” They conclude that the “phased introduction of new orthopaedic implants would seem prudent.” For additional perspectives on phased introduction of orthopaedic devices, see Graduated Introduction of Orthopaedic Implants: Encouraging Innovation and Minimizing Harm in JBJS, Nov. 7, 2012.