Early Results of Minimally Invasive Two-Incision Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Review at 24-Month Follow-Up

With a growing interest from patients in minimally invasive total hip replacements, more follow-up reports on two-incision minimally invasive total hip arthroplasty (MI-THA) are needed to help define risks, patient criteria, and adequate training measures. This study reports early results of 125 two-incision MI-THAs (minimum 2 years). The average age of the patients was 62.4 years, their average body mass was 27, all had Dorr B or better bone, and none had previous hardware. Average hospital was stay was 1.2 days. There were two (1.6%) major complications: one femoral nerve neuropraxia and one periprosthetic fracture occurred when a patient fell 4 weeks after the primary THA, necessitating reoperation. There were 15 (12%) total complications, excluding 38 (30.4%) cases with lateral femoral nerve parathesias, of which all were resolved or of little consequence at 24 months. The authors believe this minor complication is an element of the surgery and that prospective patients be advised of it. Results suggest that two-incision MI-THA may permit earlier function than standard THAs and can be performed with an acceptable complication rate when done on select clients by specially trained hip specialists.