Malseating of Modular Dual Mobility Liners: High Prevalence in Revision Total Hip Arthroplasty

Modular dual mobility (MDM) acetabular components have become increasingly more popular in total hip arthroplasty (THA). Uncertainty remains regarding liner malseating and its consequences after 5 to 10 years, especially in patients who undergo revision THA. The objective of this study was to analyze the prevalence of malseating and implant survivorship of patients who underwent revision THA using an MDM liner.

We retrospectively identified patients who had a minimum 2-year follow-up and underwent revision THA using an MDM liner. Patient demographics, implant details, mortality, and all-cause revisions were recorded. Patients who had radiographic follow-up were assessed for malseating. Kaplan-Meier survival was used to determine implant survivorship. We included 143 hips in 141 patients. Mean age was 70 years (35-93 years), and 86 patients (60.1%) were female.

Overall implant survival was 89.3% (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.843-0.946) at a mean follow-up of 6 years (ranging from 2 to 10 years). There were eight patients excluded from malseating assessment. Upon radiological review, 15 liners (11.1%) were malseated. Survival for all-cause revision for patients with malseated liners was 80.0% (12/15, 95% CI 0.62 - 0.99, P = .15) versus 91.5% in patients who had nonmalseated liners (110/120, 95% CI 0.86-0.96). There were no intraprosthetic dislocations and 3.5% of the patients were revised due to instability. No liners were revised due to malseating, and no patients who had malseated liners were revised due to instability.

Using MDM components in our cohort comprised of revision THA was associated with a high prevalence of malseating and an overall survival of 89.3% at a mean follow-up of 6 years. Malseating does not appear to impact implant survival at a mean follow-up of 6 years.