Total hip replacement ad modum Lubinus: five- to seven-year follow-up

A study of 141 total hip replacements with the Lubinus prosthesis is presented. The complications in the total patient group and the results in 129 hips with follow-up times from 5 to 7 years are described. Three prostheses (2.1%) have been reoperated because of loosening. There were radiographic signs of definitive loosening in 2.3%. Varus positioning was associated with an increased loosening rate. No infections have been encountered, and none of the hips have undergone excision arthroplasty. Ninety-two percent of the hips were free from significant pain and 78% had a total range of motion exceeding 160 degrees. THR was performed, without subsequent infections, in a conventional operating room using prophylactic penicillin and gentamicin cement. We propose that the surgical technique of exposure and the cement injection technique with a partial vacuum in the medullary canal may be responsible for the low incidence of femoral prosthesis loosening (0.7%).