Intraoperative dislocation of a trial femoral head into the pelvis during total hip arthroplasty.(Case Note/Note de cas)(Case study)

Publication: Canadian Journal of Surgery

Publication Date: 01-JUN-08

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2008 Canadian Medical Association

So-called "mini-incision" approaches for total hip arthroplasty have become popular over the past few years. (1-3) However, the shorter incision leads to higher soft-tissue tension, increasing the chances for dislocation.

We describe the case of a woman who underwent total hip arthroplasty by a minimally invasive variation of a common arthroplasty procedure and suffered dislocation of the femoral component from the acetabulum into the pelvis.

Case report

A 76-year-old woman underwent a total hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis under general anesthesia and positioned in a lateral decubitus position. A minimally invasive modification of the Watson-Jones approach as described by Bertin and Rottinger (4) was used.

Following incision of the skin and fascia, the gluteus medius and minimus muscles were retracted posteriorly, and the anterior capsule was opened. The femoral head was removed after a double osteotomy of...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.