The aim of the paper is to describe the outcomes of hip arthroplasty with the anatomical AURA II stem (BIOMET).
The study enrolled 189 patients (105 women and 84 men) who underwent a total of 213 hip arthroplasty procedures with the anatomical AURA II stem. Mean age of the patients at surgery was 61.7 years (range: 21 to 76 years) and mean follow-up period was 131.9 months (11 years).
Pre-operative Merle d'Aubigne-Postel scores (modified by Charnley) of the study group were poor in all patients. Mean post-operative improvement in the scores was 6.8 points. Excellent results were obtained in 123 cases, good in 22, fair in 24 and poor in 44 cases. The poor results were always associated with acetabular cup loosening. A total of 13 (6.1%), patients developed heterotopic ossification. According to the Kaplan-Meier estimator, 10 years' survival probability was 76.19% for the whole endoprosthesis and 100% for the stem alone.
1. Our follow-up data from a mean of 11 years show that the use of the anatomical AURA II stem results in a considerable reduction in hip pain and produces good and lasting clinical outcomes. 2. With good surgical technique and in the absence of complications, the risk of aseptic loosening is minimal.