Introduction: Short femoral stems were designed to bridge the gap between conventional straight design stems and hip resurfacing prostheses in total hip arthroplasty (THA). A number of clinical trials have been recently conducted to assess the clinical and safety profile of the cementless, colarless, tapered Metha short hip stem in young or active middle-aged individuals.
Methods: A systematic scoping review was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. 4 reviewers independently conducted the search using the MEDLINE/PubMed database and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. These databases were queried with the terms "short" AND "hip" AND "stem".
Results: From the initial 773 studies we finally chose 12 studies after applying our inclusion-exclusion criteria. The number of operated hips that were included in these studies was 5048 (mean BMI range: 22.7-35.2, mean age range: 44.4-60.4 years, mean follow-up range: 2-9 years). The mean modified Coleman methodology score was 52.3/100, while it ranged from 31/100 to 63/100. All mean clinical outcome scores that were used in the studies illustrated significant postoperative improvement when compared with the respective initial values. The revision rate of the Metha stem for component-related reasons was 2.5%, while the rate of major complications not requiring revision of the Metha stem was 2.8%.
Conclusions: The Metha stem performs well in young or active middle-aged THA patients. Further studies are required for the assessment of the long-term results.
Keywords: Anterolateral approach; Metha short femoral stem; minimally-invasive surgery; short hip stem; systematic scoping review.