Biomechanical study of pelvic discontinuity in failed total hip arthroplasty. Lessons learnt from the treatment of pelvic fractures

Pelvic discontinuity is a rare but serious problem in orthopedic surgery. Acetabular reconstruction in case of severe bone loss after failed total hip arthroplasty is technically difficult, especially in segmental loss type III (anterior or posterior) or pelvic discontinuity (type IV). Acetabular reinforcement devices are frequently used as load-sharing devices to allow allograft incorporation and in order to serve as support of acetabular implants. This study tries to show, by means of biomechanic work, the efficiency of reinforced plate in anterior column in a segmental pelvic loss, illustrated with a clinical case, which shows the socket stability of hip prosthesis.