What Is the Long-term (27- to 32-year) Survivorship of an Uncemented Tapered Titanium Femoral Component and Survival in Patients Younger Than 50 Years?

Background: Uncemented femoral components in primary THA are in widespread use, especially in patients younger than 50 years, but few studies have evaluated their survival into the late third and early fourth decade.

Questions/purposes: We evaluated (1) survivorship using femoral revision for any reason as the endpoint, (2) survivorship using femoral revision for aseptic loosening as the endpoint, (3) survival in patients younger than 50 years, (4) cumulative incidence of stem revision for periprosthetic femoral fracture and (5) the overall risk of revision (change of any part of the implanted components) at a minimum of 27 years of follow-up with an uncemented tapered titanium stem still in clinical use today.

Methods: We reviewed the clinical and radiographic results of 326 THAs performed in 326 patients (for 28 patients with bilateral THA, only the first hip was included in the analysis to ensure independent observations) using an uncemented grit-blasted, tapered collarless titanium alloy (TiAl6Nb7) stem between January 1985 and December 1989.