Twenty years of total hip arthroplasty in Taranaki: a survival analysis

The survivorship method of analysis has been used to evaluate retrospectively the outcome of 1166 total hip arthroplasties performed in Taranaki between 1970 and 1989. There were 867 cemented Charnley, 105 Harris Galante and 92 cemented Muller prostheses. Outcome was determined in 99.1% of the cases. There were 72 failures in the Charnley group, resulting in an annual failure rate of 1.78% and a 15 year survival rate of 73%. There were 26 failures in the Muller group, an annual failure of 6.93% and an 11 year survival of 63%. At review none of the Harris Galante group had failed. Survival was affected by age, sex, hospital and surgeon.