Background: Mixing and matching components from different manufacturers in total hip arthroplasty is a frequently used off-label praxis. The clinical consequences of this procedure have not been studied in detail.
Methods: 860 patients with matched and 1067 patients with mixed primary total hip replacement (THR) components carried out between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2004, were selected from our Institution registry. The analysis endpoint was set at 1 January 2016. THRs with poorly performing components were excluded from study groups. Kaplan-Meier survival curves for both groups were calculated and compared using the Log-Rank test and the demographic data using the chi-square test. Correlations between demographic data and revisions were calculated using bivariate correlation.
Results: 28 revisions were carried out in the matched group and 67 in the mixed group. The 14-year overall survival probability was significantly better in the former (96.0%) than in the mixed group (92.7%) (p = 0.002). Survival, free of aseptic and septic failures, was statistically, significantly higher in the matched group (p = 0.026 and p = 0.007, respectively).The survival of the mixed subgroup with heads and stems from the same manufacturer did not differ statistically from that of the matched group (p = 0.079).
Conclusions: In contrast to the results listed in the National Joint Registry and the New Zealand Joint Registry, the survival probability in our study was, statistically, significantly higher in total hip replacements using components of the same manufacturer. Importantly, mixing and matching the components of different manufacturers led to similar survival providing the head and the stem were from the same manufacturer.
Keywords: Arthroplasty registry; head-stem taper junction; mixed and matched components; survival rate; total hip replacement.