Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of simvastatin on periprosthetic bone mineral density (BMD) in hypercholesterolaemic patients after total hip arthroplasty.
Methods: From January 2012 to December 2015, a total of 42 consecutive hypercholesterolaemic patients with total hip arthroplasty were recruited for this study. The simvastatin group was 21 patients (15 males, 6 females) with average age of 69.4 ± 6.6 years treated with simvastatin for one year post-operatively, and the control group was the other 21 patients (12 males, 9 females) who did not take simvastatin. These parameters of the periprosthetic bone mineral density after total hip arthroplasty were collected by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry(DEXA) one week and three, six, 12 months post-operatively.
Results: In the control group patients showed significant loss of periprosthetic BMD in ROIs 1, 2, 6, and 7 throughout the study period. The loss of BMD in ROIs 3 and 5 was only significantly observed at three months follow-up and recovered thereafter. There were no significant detected changes of BMD in ROI 4. In the Simvastatin group, the percentage of BMD loss was significantly less (P < 0.05) in ROI 1, 2, 6 and 7 throughout the study period than the control group. The percentage of BMD loss were significant observed in ROI 3 and 5 at three months follow-up, which were also significantly less (P < 0.05) than in the control group. A slight gain of BMD was measured in ROI 4 at 12 months follow-up (1.419%, P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Simvastatin administered for one year post-operatively can effectively prevent periprosthetic bone loss after total hip arthroplasty.
Keywords: Bone mineral density (BMD); Simvastatin; Total hip arthroplasty (THA).