[10 year results with a cemented fine-grit-blasted titanium-aluminum-vanadium hip endoprosthesis shaft]

Are the results of cemented titanium hip arthroplasty as bad as described in literature? We present the 10-year results of a cemented mild grid blasted Titanium-Aluminium-Vanadium Stem in Total-Hip-Arthroplasty.

The clinical and radiological reexamination was documented in standardized questionnaire in which several scores were integrated. All X-rays were stored and analysed by a special hardware and software computer system.

35% of all patients could be reexamined both clinically and roentgenologically. 71 patients were male (mean age 56.1 years) and 130 female (mean age 59.3 years). The average follow-up period was 11 years and 4 months. The mean Merle d'Aubigné hip score increased from 10.5 to 16.0 points at the follow-up evaluation. Radiolucent lines were according to the zones of Gruen seen in 1% to 22% depending on the zone and the size of the femoral component. 18 reoperations of the femoral component (2.9%) had to be performed. The survivorship analysis (Kaplan-Meier) showed a 95.4% survival of the femoral component after 10 years.

Our findings with a cemented mild grid blasted Titanium-Aluminum-Vanadium stem demonstrate excellent results unlike it was reported for cemented femoral components of similar alloy but different design and cementation philosophy.