Introduction: We evaluated the clinical and radiological outcomes of patients following total hip arthroplasty (THA) for acetabular fracture.
Materials and methods: This was a retrospective cohort study in a single center. The medical records of patients who underwent THA from March 2002 to March 2017 were reviewed. Inclusion criteria were THA and a history of open reduction and internal fixation of acetabular fractures. Thirty-seven patients with a mean age of 56.2 years were enrolled. The Harris hip score (HHS), acetabular fracture classification, time interval between acetabular fracture and THA, cause of THA, surgical approach, implant type, complications, radiographic results, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were analyzed.
Results: All patients were followed up for an average of 6.6 years. The mean preoperative HHS of 42.5 had improved to 83.5 at the final follow-up (p < 0.05). There were 29 cases of post-traumatic arthritis, 6 cases of avascular necrosis, and 4 cases of non-union. The average interval from injury to THA was 58 months (range 4-336 months). The re-admission rate was 18.9%. Patients who underwent conversion to THA due to post-traumatic arthritis combined with non-union acetabular fracture developed clinical failure more frequently than patients with post-traumatic arthritis (p = 0.037). At 12 years, 83.4% of patients were free from revision of femoral and acetabular components.
Conclusion: THA secondary to an operatively treated acetabular fracture provides good symptomatic relief, but shows relatively inferior survival rates, and clinical failure was related to post-traumatic arthritis with acetabular non-union.
Keywords: Acetabular fracture; Internal fixation; Open reduction; Total hip arthroplasty.