Introduction: The majority of acetabular revisions can be performed with an uncemented, porous acetabular component with or without bone grafting. These are contained acetabular defects, with an intact acetabular rim (Paprosky type I and II). As defects of the medial wall of the acetabulum are a challenge situation revision surgery, we performed this biomechanical study on a pig pelvis model with contained acetabular defects to determine the size of medial wall defect at which the acetabular cup will have sufficient primary stability.
Materials and methods: In 24 pig pelvis models, different diameter of medial wall defects were created, followed by acetabular component placement. The acetabulum externally loaded, and the force at a level in which the acetabular component remains stable for each diameter of defect, or at which point the acetabular cup moves into the pelvis for >2 mm.
Results: In the models with acetabular medial wall defects of 10 and 20 mm, 2 mm acetabular displacement occurred under a force between 1000 and 1500 N. In those with a medial wall defect of 25 mm, the force that caused acetabular instability was between 700 and 1000 N. In the models with 30 mm of medial wall defect all acetabular components were unstable under a force of 700 N.
Conclusions: According to our results, acetabular component should be stable if the defect of the medial wall of the acetabulum is less than 68% of the diameter of the acetabular component or if the uncovered surface area of the acetabular component is not greater than 27%, and the force <700 N. For a load of 1000 N, the medial wall defect should not exceed 45% of acetabular component diameter or 18% of uncovered acetabular component surface.
Keywords: Acetabular rim; biomechanical study; contained acetabular defect; medial wall defect; porous cup; revision hip arthroplasty.