[Complications following cementing of joint prosthesis]

The authors studied changes in the level of lactate dehydrogenase during insertion of hip prostheseis fixed with methyl methacrylate cement. Thirty patients were studied here. In 23 of them, the L.D.H. isoenzymes were estimated. The variations in these enzymes appear 3 hours after the second fixation with cement: rise in L.D.H., isoenzyme 5, (of skeletal muscle origin) of isoenzymes 3 and 4, (of pulmonary origin). This is a sign of pulmonary involvement even in the absence of clinical signs.