Total hip replacement for high dislocation of the hip joint remains technically difficult in terms of preparation of the true acetabulum and restoration of leg length. We describe our experience of cementless total hip replacement combined with a subtrochanteric femoral shortening osteotomy in 20 hips with Crowe grade IV dislocation with a mean follow-up of 8.1 years (4 to 11.5). There was one man and 17 women with a mean age of 55 years (44 to 69) at the time of the operation. After placment of the acetabular component at the site of the natural acetabulum, a cementless porous-coated cylindrical femoral component was implanted following a subtrochanteric femoral shortening osteotomy. The mean Japanese Orthopedic Association hip score improved from a mean of 38 (22 to 62) to a mean of 83 points (55 to 98) at the final follow-up. The mean lengthening of the leg was 14.8 mm (−9 to 34) in patients with iliofemoral osteoarthritis and 35.3 mm (15 to 51) in patients with no arthritic changes. No nerve palsy was observed. Total hip replacement combined with subtrochanteric shortening femoral osteotomy in this situation is beneficial in avoiding nerve injury and still permits valuable improvement in inequality of leg length.
We evaluated triple-phase bone scintigraphy in the differential diagnosis of peri-prosthetic infection in 46 patients with a total hip replacement or bipolar hemiarthroplasty who were due for revision surgery. There were 18 men and 28 women, with a mean age at operation of 64.6 years (28 to 81). We defined peri-prosthetic infection as an increased uptake of radioisotope in all the phases of triple-phase bone scintigraphy and validated these results against the histological and/or microbiology results in every case. The positive and negative predictive values for the presence of infection were 83% and 93%, respectively. The diagnostic sensitivity was 88% and the specificity was 90%. This study indicates that triple-phase bone scintigraphy is a useful tool in the detection of peri-prosthetic infection and offers a cost-effective method of screening.
