Hip prosthetic loosening: A very personal review

Hip prosthetic loosening is often difficult to detect at an early stage, and there has been uncertainty for a long time as to when the loosening occurs and thus to the basic causes. By comparing different diagnostic methods, we found that loosening is best defined as prosthetic migration and measured by radiostereometric analysis. Convincing evidence indicates that poor interlock, poor bone quality, and resorption of a necrotic bone bed may initiate loosening during or shortly after surgery; this forms the basis of the theory of early loosening. Biomechanical factors do affect the subsequent progression of loosening, which may increase subclinically during a long period of time. Eventually, the loosening may be detected on standard radiographs and may be interpreted as late loosening but should to be interpreted as late detection of loosening. The theory of early loosening explains the rapid early migration, the development of periprosthetic osteolysis and granulomas, the causality between wear and loosening, and largely the epidemiology of clinical failure of hip prostheses. Aspects discussed are definition of loosening, the pattern of early migration, the choice of migration threshold, the current understanding of loosening, a less exothermic bone cement, cemented taper-slip stems, a new exciting computed tomography-based technique for simpler implant migration studies, and research suggestions.