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Midterm Results with a Bipolar Radial Head Prosthesis: Radiographic Evidence of Loosening at the Bone-Cement Interface

¹ Orthopaedic Department, University Hospital Sart-Tilman, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. E-mail address for P. Georis: Pierre.Georis{at}chu.ulg.ac.be

Investigation performed at the Orthopaedic Department, University Hospital Sart-Tilman, Liège, Belgium

Disclosure: The authors did not receive any outside funding or grants in support of their research for or preparation of this work. Neither they nor a member of their immediate families received payments or other benefits or a commitment or agreement to provide such benefits from a commercial entity. No commercial entity paid or directed, or agreed to pay or direct, any benefits to any research fund, foundation, division, center, clinical practice, or other charitable or nonprofit organization with which the authors, or a member of their immediate families, are affiliated or associated.

Methods: The functional and radiographic outcomes following treatment of fifty-one comminuted fractures of the radial head with a bipolar radial head prosthesis in fifty-one consecutive patients were evaluated at a mean of 8.4 years postoperatively. There were eleven isolated comminuted fractures involving the entire radial head. Thirty-four fractures were associated with a posterior elbow dislocation, and six patients had a posterior Monteggia lesion.

Results: According to the Mayo Elbow Performance Index, fourteen elbows were graded as excellent; twenty-five, as good; nine, as fair; and three, as poor. Radiographic changes reflecting or suggesting progressive osteolysis were present in thirty-seven patients. Complications occurred in ten patients, but only one underwent surgical treatment, for an ulnar neuropathy.

Conclusions: Although satisfactory midterm functional results were achieved in thirty-nine of the fifty-one patients, the high prevalence of adverse radiographic changes suggesting periprosthetic osteolysis should alert clinicians to this possible drawback of the use of bipolar radial head prostheses, especially in young and/or active patients.

Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

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