910 Is There a Clinically Significant Advantage to Minimally Invasive Over Standard Surgical Approaches in Total Hip Arthroplasty? a Systematic Review

Abstract

Abstract Aim Conventional surgical approaches in Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA) utilise one long incision to access to the hip joint. Nowadays minimally invasive (MIS) approaches, involving one or more incisions of less than 10cm in length, are being increasingly utilised. This systematic review aims to investigate whether or not there is a statistically significant benefit for the MIS approaches over the conventional ones, and if so, whether a particular approach is superior to the others. Method This study was carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Following an initial scoping search, six databases were selected in order to search for relevant studies, those being Embase, Medline, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and the Cochrane Library for Systematic Reviews, based pre-determined inclusion criteria formulated using the PICO (population, intervention, control, and outcome) format. Results 10 studies were included for qualitative analysis including 7 randomised control trials, 2 cohort studies and 1 systematic review. There was no agreement in the results, with some studies favouring conventional approaches and other MIS. Conclusions Minimally invasive surgery is an evolving concept in THA. Based on this study, there is still not enough data in the literature to warrant adopting MIS over conventional approaches as standard practice. The SuperPATH approach appears to be the most promising MIS technique. More research comparing MIS to conventional approaches in the longer term is needed.