Allied Health Faculty Publications

Safety and Efficacy of Minimally Invasive Total Hip Arthroplasty

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Journal Title

The Internet Journal of Academic Physician Assistants

ISSN

1092-4078

Volume

7

Issue

1

Abstract

For many years, total hip arthroplasty (THA) has been a consistently effective surgical treatment for patients suffering degenerative hip diseases. The advent of minimally invasive THA has raised questions about the effectiveness, risks, and benefits of these approaches compared to the conventional techniques. This article evaluates the most recent (2004-2008) published literature on minimally invasive THA. A number of studies revealed moderate short-term postoperative benefits with minimally invasive THA, including decreased pain and earlier ambulation. There were no long-term benefits for minimally invasive procedures other than a shorter incision scar. When compared to the standard technique, both demonstrate high long-term success rates. Complications from minimally invasive THA were seen in several studies and were most often attributed to limited operative field visibility and/or surgeon inexperience with the technique. In conclusion, minimally invasive THA, while providing some postoperative benefit to patients, is not more effective than standard THA and is a more complicated and challenging surgery to perform. Minimally invasive THA should only be performed by surgeons who have had extensive training in the technique and should be reserved for patients who meet selection criteria with regards to body habitus, to minimize complications.

Keywords

Total hip arthroplasty, minimally invasive, effectiveness, risks, benefits

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