Which hip prosthesis?

 

Introduction

Mr Eastaugh-Waring chooses hip implants which, wherever possible, have a proven track record in published peer reviewed medical journals and presentations at international meetings. He also tries to use prostheses which allow him to use as wide a variety of bearings (gliding surfaces) as possible so he can tailor a hip to each individual.

For young active patients Mr Eastaugh-Waring uses the uncemented Corail which, in the huge international Joint Registries, gives a remarkably impressive performance. 97.8% still going strong passed 10 years.

Studies show over 95% of these hips still function well at twenty years, and recently released long term data shows over 90% surviving passed 30 years! This puts them among the best in the world. The uncemented Corail also allows use of larger heads to optimise function with ceramic technology.

The cemented stem of choice is the C-stem, developed in the same unit as Charnley’s original ground breaking work. It uses the polished tapered design originally introduced by the Exeter group (and Charnley in his early work), but takes it further by loading the very top of the femur to improve bone strength even further. In at least one fifth of patients, the bone actually gets stronger after the implantation of this hip (Professor Wroblewski).

For the cup, the Pinnacle allows modern large bearings and has a 10A* rating from the national ODEP committee. This is the best rating possible. It is a direct development of the Duraloc which, with a rating of 10A, was the most reliable component of its time.

When looking at hip resurfacing, the Birmingham device has been around for longer, and is better followed up than any comparable component. This gives a real feeling of reassurance for a predominantly young patient group who need to rely on the replacement for many years.

Studies show around 95-94% implant survival at eight years, including all the early failures affecting any resurfacing device (2-4% in the first 6-12 months).