Adverse tissue reactions after total hip arthroplasty

Hip arthroplasty is commonly performed on patients with debilitating hip disease to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life. Generally, long-term success rates are excellent. However, a subset of patients requires revision due to prosthesis failure. A wide array of microscopic findings can be seen in surrounding tissues and many of the findings are etiologically nonspecific. The aim of this review is to discuss the etiologies and accompanying adverse tissue reactions seen with prosthesis failure, including the findings seen in aseptic lymphocyte-dominated vasculitis-associated lesion. Aseptic lymphocyte-dominated vasculitis-associated lesion is an important diagnostic consideration as its proposed pathogenesis is a type VI hypersensitivity response to metal ions. In addition, we also propose a diagnostic algorithm that incorporates clinical and histopathologic findings to suggest an etiologic cause. This proposed algorithm may be clinically useful as, to date, there is no consensus on nomenclature.