Broken wings--common with the Hardinger plug

We used the Hardinger occluder plug in 51 consecutive total hip arthroplasties. In 34 hips, 1 or more of the 12 polyethylene wings fractured and could be washed out from the canal. As many as 7 wings were loose in 2 arthroplasties. Although numerous wings were broken, no failure occurred in occlusion. The placement of loose wings in the femoral canal was studied by cementing a Charnley prosthesis in a saw-bone prepared with loose wings. The model was cut into slices. We found that the plastic wings could come into contact with both the bone and prosthesis.