[Sensitization to metals in patients submitted to arthroplasty]

The sensitization of the patients submitted to arthroplasty has been pointed out with increasing frequency. This paper attempted to establish the occurrence rate and the importance of this sensitization in patients submitted to arthroplasty of metallic or plastic type, by means of the patch-test, blastization and macrophage inhibition test. The highest positivity incidence was observed towards chromium (9.7%) and cobalt (6.4%) in the patients submitted to arthroplasty of metallic type, while that of plastic type showed a 1% positivity to methylacrylate. These data stress the importance of the adoption of the patch-test in all patients, before being submitted to any type of prosthesis, and of the preferential use of those prostheses which turned out less sensitizing.