Acetabular Cup Revision Arthroplasty Using Morselized Impaction Allograft

The rate of acetabular cup revision arthroplasty is gradually rising along with an increased risk of osteolysis and prosthesis loosening over time and an increase in life expectancy. The goals of revision total hip arthroplasty are: i) implant stability through reconstruction of large bone defects, ii) restoration of range of motion and biomechanics of the hip joint, and iii) normalization of uneven limb lengths. In acetabular cup revision arthroplasty, stable fixation of acetabular components is difficult in the presence of severe bone loss (e.g., evidence suggests that it is challenging to achieve satisfactory results in cases of Paprosky type 3 or higher bone defects using conventional techniques). The author of this study performed acetabular revision to manage patients with large areas of defective bones by filling in with morselized impaction allografts. These allografts were irradiated frozen-stored femoral heads acquired from a tissue bank, and were applied to areas of an acetabular bone defect followed by insertion of a cementless cup. When this procedure was insufficient to obtain primary fixation, a tri-cortical or structural allograft using a femoral head was carried out. Structural stability and bone incorporation were confirmed via long-term follow-up. This study aims to review conventional surgical techniques and verify the utility of surgical procedures by analyzing the author's surgical methods and discussing case reports.