Authors: James A Keeney Bradley S Ellison William J Maloney John C Clohisy
Publish Date: 2012/06/06
Volume: 470, Issue: 11, Pages: 3220-3226
Abstract
Routine followup of patients after primary or revision THA is commonly practiced and driven by concerns that delays in identifying early failure will result in more complicated or more costly surgical interventions Although midterm followup 4–10 years has been performed to follow cohorts of patients the benefit of observing individual patients regardless of symptoms has not been establishedWe determined 1 the reasons patients with THA return for midterm followup 2 the treatment recommendations and interventions occurring as a result of midterm followup and 3 how frequently revision surgery is recommended for asymptomatic and symptomatic patients at midterm followupWe retrospectively identified 501 patients 503 hips who returned for followup at least 4 years mean 5 years range 4–109 years after their primary or revision THA We recorded their reasons for followup and treatment recommendations including those for revision surgery at midterm followupFiftythree percent of patients returning for routine followup had no symptoms 31 reported an unrelated musculoskeletal concern and 19 had symptoms from their primary THA 15 or revision THA 32 Sixtynine percent of symptomatic patients and 10 of asymptomatic patients received treatment recommendations with physical therapy as the most frequent intervention 74 Revision surgery was recommended for 6 of symptomatic and 06 of asymptomatic patientsEach author certifies that his or her institution approved the human protocol for this investigation that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research and that informed consent for participation in the study was obtained
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