[Is shorter really better? : Philosophy of short stem prosthesis designs]

The presently available short hip stem designs show significant differences and can be differentiated into those containing the neck, those partially containing the neck and neck resection designs. In this article the currently available designs will be presented. Except for the Mayo stem there are no long-term results available. There are significant differences between the the systems especially with respect to reproducibility of the individual anatomy of patients therefore DEXA and DSA studies are needed in order to identify problematic stem designs early before clinical failures are produced in a large number of patients.