Experience with the bipolar prosthesis in hip arthroplasty. A clinical study

Hip arthroplasty using a bipolar prosthesis was performed in 73 patients (75 hips) with femoral neck fracture, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or degenerative arthritis. Bipolar hip arthroplasty is more conservative than conventional total hip arthroplasty, because methyl methacrylate usually is not needed to fix the bipolar prosthesis to bone. Overall results were 67.1% good to excellent, 20.5% fair, and 12.3% poor; among the arthritic patients, the results were 72.9% good to excellent, 19.1% fair, and 8.5% poor. Complications included one deep wound infection and one arterial embolus; no dislocations occurred.