Failure causes in hip resurfacing arthroplasty – retrieval analysis

Metal–on–metal hip resurfacing arthroplasty represents an alternative treatment option for young and active patients with osteoarthritis. The advantages of metal–on–metal hip resurfacing arthroplasty include lower wear rate, restoration of anatomic hip biomechanics, preservation of bone stock for subsequent revision procedures, and enhanced stability due to the larger diameter of articulation. Since renaissance of hip resurfacing in 1991, failures of this procedure have challenged both surgeons and engineers to improve the surgical techniques and characteristic of the devices. This paper tries to summarise the causes of failure of hip resurfacing and offers a few examples among our experience with this procedure.

Keywords: hip resurfacing, failure causes, metal–on–metal bearings, femoral neck fracture, dislocation, arthroplasty, osteoarthritis, wear rate, hip biomechanics, bone stock, stability, resurfacing failure