[Artificial hip joints in Norway. A national registry of total hip arthroplasties]

The Norwegian national register for total hip replacements collects data on the total hip arthroplasties performed in Norway. 17,444 operations were registered from the start i September 1987 and through 1990. The age of the patients ranged from 12 til 97 years. The median was 69 years. 69% of the patients were females. The operating-time ranged from 25 to 420 minutes, with a median of 100 minutes. Cemented prostheses constituted 83% and uncemented prostheses 17% of the market. The Charnley prosthesis dominated, and was used in 49% of all implants. 13% of all operations were revisions. During these three and a half years, 0.9% of the cemented prostheses and 2.9% of the noncemented prostheses were revised (P less than 0.001).