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Is There Faster Recovery With an Anterior or Anterolateral THA? A Pilot Study

  • Symposium: Papers Presented at the Hip Society Meetings 2009
  • Published:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®

Abstract

Surgical technique is an important factor affecting recovery of hip function after total hip arthroplasty (THA). We therefore asked whether short-term recovery of hip strength and motion would differ between the anterior and anterolateral THA approaches. We presumed that although both approaches would improve hip function by 16 weeks postsurgery when compared with presurgery, a slower recovery would be demonstrated by the anterolateral group at 6 weeks when compared with the anterior group as a result of division and reattachment of the abductor muscles. We observed hip kinematics and kinetics during walking and isometric hip abductor strength for the involved limb. Hip abductor strength of all patients was lower than controls at all three testing times. Compared with presurgery, all patients demonstrated improved abductor strength at 16 weeks postsurgery. At 6 weeks, the patients with an anterior approach had improved late stance peak abductor moment postsurgery and reached the level of controls, but those with an anterolateral approach did not. Although the anterior approach was associated with improved gait velocity and peak flexor moments at 6 weeks compared to before surgery, we observed no differences between the two approaches for most of the isometric strength and dynamic gait measures at 6 or 16 weeks. Neither approach provided faster recovery.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ms Crystal Mills for assisting in the recruitment of patients and Robin High for consulting with us on our statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Motion Analysis Laboratory, Department of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, 1240 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Virginia Klausmeier MS, Vipul Lugade MS & Li-Shan Chou PhD

  2. Slocum Center, Eugene, OR, USA

    Brian A. Jewett MD & Dennis K. Collis MD

Authors
  1. Virginia Klausmeier MS
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  2. Vipul Lugade MS
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  3. Brian A. Jewett MD
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  4. Dennis K. Collis MD
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  5. Li-Shan Chou PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Li-Shan Chou PhD.

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Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

Each author certifies that his or her institution has approved the human protocol for this investigation, that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research, and that informed consent for participation in the study was obtained.

This work was performed at Sacred Heart Medical Center, Slocum Center and at the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.

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Klausmeier, V., Lugade, V., Jewett, B.A. et al. Is There Faster Recovery With an Anterior or Anterolateral THA? A Pilot Study. Clin Orthop Relat Res 468, 533–541 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-009-1075-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-009-1075-4

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