Post-operative peri-prosthetic femoral fracture (PO-PPFF) is one of the most relevant complications in primary Total Hip Arthroplasty (pTHA), accountable for a significant clinical and socio-economic burden both in revision and fixation settings.

We retrospectively reviewed of our series of 1586 cementless total hip arthroplasty performed between 1999 and 2019 (achieving a minimum of 5-years follow-up) with different short stems.

We have observed a cumulative low incidence of PO-PPFF of 0,33% (5 cases): we divided Po-PPFF in two groups: fracture occurred around a short stem (A) and around a standard shortened stem (B), according to French Hip & Knee Classification of Short Stems.

Despite the length of observed period (mean follow-up 12 years, min 5 years max 24 years) a total of 1512 cases (mean age at surgery 61 years, max 74, min 40 years) were available to clinical and radiographic follow-up, being this population enrolled in elective surgery clinical protocols.

Our data exceed the low incidence of post-operative femoral fracture around bone -preserving previously reported by Kim in 2018 (12 fracture out of 1089 cases:1.1%).

No correlation have been observed among occurrence of PO-PPF age of the patient and no fracture occurred around cemented short stems despite patient's characteristics were unfavourable in term of age and bone quality. This result is not unexpected, giving the lower incidence of peri-prosthetic fracture even cemented conventional stems, as reported in all registry and systematic reviews.

A similar behaviour was reported in 2020 Australian Joint Registry, where Post-operative periprosthetic femoral fracture showed a steep curve in early period, but remaining firmly below 1% during the following 12 years.

Our clinical data seems to confirm previous studies by Jones (conducted on synthetic bone and fresh-frozen cadaveric femurs) where higher fracture angles and higher fracture torque were detected in short hips compared to standard stems.