Quality of the femoral cement mantle in total hip arthroplasty using the direct anterior hip approach

Eustathios Kenanidis; Rajiv Kaila; Lazaros Poultsides; Eleftherios Tsiridis; Panayiotis Christofilopoulos

doi:10.1016/j.artd.2020.02.012

Quality of the femoral cement mantle in total hip arthroplasty using the direct anterior hip approach

Arthroplast Today. 2020 Jun 22;6(3):601-606.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.artd.2020.02.012. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Authors

Eustathios Kenanidis^{1

2

3}, Rajiv Kaila¹, Lazaros Poultsides^{2

3}, Eleftherios Tsiridis^{2

3}, Panayiotis Christofilopoulos¹

Affiliations

¹ Orthopaedic Department, Hospital de la Tour, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Academic Orthopaedic Department, Aristotle University Medical School, General Hospital Papageorgiou, Thessaloniki, Greece.
³ Centre of Orthopaedic and Regenerative Medicine (CORE), Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI)-Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Balkan Center, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract

Background: Limited literature exists concerning the femoral cement mantle quality that can be achieved through an anterior approach in total hip arthroplasty (THA). We radiologically evaluated the quality and thickness of the femoral cement mantle in patients undergoing THA utilizing the direct anterior approach (DAA).

Methods: Immediate postoperative anteroposterior and lateral radiographs of 116 consecutive patients who underwent hybrid or fully cemented THA using the DAA and cemented Quadra-C stem (Medacta, International, SA, Switzerland) were assessed by 2 arthroplasty surgeons blinded to the study. Surgical indications were hip osteoarthritis or subcapital hip fracture. The cement mantle and stem alignment were evaluated using the Barrack classification and Khalily methods, respectively. After calibration of radiographs, the thinnest part of the cement mantle per Gruen zone was recorded. Parameters were compared between obese and nonobese patients.

Results: Agreement between raters was substantial for the cement quality in anteroposterior (k = 0.707, P ≤ .001) and moderate for lateral radiographs (k = 0.574, P ≤ 001). The cement mantle was graded A in 39.25%, B in 53.0%, and C in 7.75% of anteroposterior radiographs and similarly for lateral radiographs (40.1% A, 51.75% B, 9.5% C). 93% of stems had neutral alignment. The mean thinnest cement mantle (P = .237) and incidence of inadequate cement mantle (<2 mm) per zone (P = .431) were comparable between Gruen zones. The cement mantle quality (P = .174) and inadequacy (P > .05) and stem alignment (P = .652) were comparable between obese and nonobese patients.

Conclusions: DAA enables correct implantation and effective cementation of straight femoral stems. A high-quality cement mantle can be achieved using DAA even in obese patients.

Keywords: Cement mantle quality; Cement thickness; Cemented hip arthroplasty; DAA; Direct anterior approach; THA.