A correlative study of clinical and histological findings of revision hip arthroplasty for rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory joint disease

Abstract

Objective: Primary hip arthroplasty in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other forms of inflammatory joint disease (IJD) is generally thought to be associated with a less favourable outcome in terms of implant survival and other complications. Whether the duration of implant survival correlates with the degree of rheumatoid‐like inflammatory changes in periprosthetic tissues is uncertain.Methods: Histopathological changes in periprosthetic tissues obtained following revision surgery of 34 total hip replacements on 27 patients with IJD (RA 18 cases; ankylosing spondylitis three cases; juvenile chronic arthritis six cases) were examined.Results: A heavy diffuse lymphocyte and plasma cell infiltrate±lymphoid aggregates was noted in 29% of cases in whom the mean implant survival was 5.6 years (range: 2–8 years). Where little or no lymphocytic infiltrate was noted in periprosthetic tissues, the mean implant survival was 8.6 years (range: 1–17 years). Revision arthroplasty was not undertaken for early or late infection of a primary hip replacement.Conclusions: Our findings indicate that implant survival is less in those cases where there is a heavy lymphocyte and plasma‐cell infiltrate in periprosthetic tissues. These findings suggest that the presence of a heavy chronic inflammatory‐cell infiltrate in periprosthetic tissues is likely to be a contributory factor in causing early implant failure in RA.