Total hip arthroplasty using femoral head shelf autografts in dysplastic hips. Our experience

The present work deals with a series of 28 patients (a total of 31 hips) suffering from coxarthrosis in dysplasia of the hip. All patients had undergone arthroplasty where an autograft of cortico-cancellous bone was taken from the head of the patientís femur. In 21 of these hips the prosthetic components were not cemented while the other 10 cases were. The patients (average age 57 years 5 months) underwent radiography and were clinically evaluated using the Harris Hip Score. The average follow-up was 6 years and 7 months. In the 10 hips which had been cemented, the average pre-operative Harris Hip Score was 46.9 points (range 24-85) while it was 80.5 upon check-up (range 50-98). In the 21 hips which were not cemented the average pre-operative Harris Hip Score was 44.3 points (range 21-62) while, at the time of check-up it was 90.8 (range 60-100). Only in 3 cases (9.67%) did the cotyloid portion require reoperation because of mobilization. In all cases (100%) the graft integrated perfectly with the host bone. The present study provides encouraging data regarding the use of autografts of cortico-cancellous bone taken from the head of the femur during hip replacement in patients with coxarthrosis in dysplasia of the hip. No differences were seen between the cemented and non cemented prostheses.