New research appearing in the April 23, 2018 edition of HIP International asked the burning question, which is safer, 32-mm or 28-mm ceramic-on-ceramic (CoC) liners in total hip arthroplasty (THA)?
The answer came in the form of a paper which is titled, “32-mm ceramic-on-ceramic total hip arthroplasty versus 28-mm ceramic bearings: 5- to 15-year follow-up study.”
Co-author and Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine orthopedic surgeon Yoshitoshi Higuchi, M.D. told OTW, “We were seeing that 28-mm and 32-mm third generation ceramic liners (thickness was 4.1 and 4.3-mm) were thinner than the other ceramic liners (thickness was 5.2 to 7.0-mm).”
“Thus, my clinical questions were, ‘Were 28 and 32-mm ceramic liners easy to be broken?’ and ‘Which ceramic liners were easy to be broken?’”
To find the answer, the researchers looked at 107 joints (95 women and 6 men) which had been implanted with 28-mm CoC liners, and 60 joints (49 women and 7 men) which had received 32-mm CoC liners. The average age of the patients in the study was 56.1 and 55.7 years in the 28-mm and 32-mm CoC groups, respectively.
Dr. Higuchi told OTW, “The most important results was that there was no ceramic fracture in our study. So, I mentioned that the 28- and 32-mm ceramic on ceramic THAs are safe and are associated with good clinical outcomes.”
“I recommend to orthopedic surgeons that if they are avoiding using 28-mm or 32-mm ceramic liner to prevent ceramic fracture, please do not be afraid to use these thin ceramic liners because these ceramic liners are safe.”
