Acetabular and femoral reconstruction with impacted graft and cement

Loosening of primary cemented and noncemented components of total hip arthroplasties always is accompanied by a loss of bone stock. There are several options for reconstruction of the acetabular and femoral defects. The authors' treatment of choice is a standardized cemented revision procedure with tight impaction of morsellized cancellous autograft or allograft chips in acetabular and femoral reconstructions. In this study, the clinical and radiographic evaluation of acetabular defects reconstructed with impacted morsellized allograft femoral heads was described. A cemented cup supplemented with morsellized cancellous grafts and wire meshes in cases of segmental defects was sufficiently stable to allow for complete graft consolidation. After a mean followup of 70 months of 88 hips, 4 cases of clinical failures (including 1 infection) and 6 cases of radiologic failure of the reconstructions were observed, resulting in a failure percentage of 11.4% after 5 years. Autografts and allografts were equally effective. Because the clinical success of the technique also was supported by the results of histologic and biomechanic studies in animals, the authors were encouraged to continue this technique, not only in the acetabulum, but also in the femur.