No consensus has emerged yet regarding the best prosthetic construct with which to manage patients who require revision surgery for dislocation after a total hip arthroplasty (THA). But in the December 2, 2020 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Hoskins et al. add insight into that question by tapping the Australian Orthopaedic Association Total Joint Replacement Registry to analyze which of 4 first-revision component constructs led to the fewest second revisions.
Among the 1,275 THAs that were revised once for prosthesis dislocation, 203 hips went on to have a second revision, with dislocation being the most common cause for re-revision. The authors studied the second-revision THAs in 4 prosthetic categories: standard-sized femoral heads, large-sized femoral heads, dual-mobility heads, and constrained acetabular liners. The rate of all-cause second revision was significantly higher in the standard-head group when compared with the constrained-liner group. But in the 91 cases of second revisions for dislocation, the standard head showed significantly higher second-revision rates than any of the other 3 constructs. There was no statistically significant difference in rates of second revision between those 3 non-standard articulations
The authors discuss dual-mobility heads at some length, asserting that “caution should be exercised in their routine use, particularly in younger and active patients.” They note that the constrained liner was the “only articulation to show a difference when compared with standard-head THA for both all-cause revision and revision for a subsequent diagnosis of dislocation,” but they observe that impingement and acetabular component loosening are common concerns with constrained liners.
Despite these caveats, it seems clear from this data that the choice of articulating surface for either a first or second revision THA due to dislocation should probably exclude standard head sizes. Calling for longer-term data on all 3 alternative constructs studied here (the follow-up periods were different for all 4 articulations), the authors emphasize that “surgeons should [also] look beyond articulating surfaces”—to surgical approach, component orientation, and patient factors such as soft-tissue quality—in the effort to reduce the burden of THA dislocations.
