Author’s reply

Abstract

The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volumeVol. 87-B, No. 10 CorrespondenceFree AccessAuthor’s replyA. SHIMMIN, D. BACKA. SHIMMINSearch for more papers by this author, D. BACKSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Oct 2005https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620X.87B10.16899AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsAdd to Favourites ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Sir,We thank Mr Irvine for his interest in our article. We agree that age-specific data in relation to fracture would be of interest. However, there are a number of problems in producing these statistics. First, there is already significant bias in the age selection of patients for this procedure. We did not study a wide distribution of ages and therefore it would be wrong to draw conclusions regarding suitability for hip resurfacing for the range of ages from these data.Secondly, we were unable to collect complete data on ages for all 3429 procedures performed in Australia. Without these data we are unable to state whether a particular age range is more prone to fracture. We performed a smaller study focusing on one state in Australia where age statistics were complete. However, the number of fractures was too few for us to reach any useful statistical conclusions. Considering the small number of fractures encountered, we must be careful not to extrapolate too many conclusions from the data.Our opinion is that there should be no specific age limit for the procedure. In our prospective study, we did not impose a lower age limit; over a certain age we considered all cases on individual merit, basing our criteria on the expectations of the patient, their occupation, bone density and levels of physical activity. There is no doubt that there comes a time when resurfacing does not offer any advantages over a standard total hip replacement (i.e. less than a 15-year life expectancy), and may have other disadvantages. Based on our research we do not feel that we are in a position to draw firm conclusions regarding hip resurfacing based purely on age-specific data.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 87-B, No. 10 Metrics History Published online 1 October 2005 Published in print 1 October 2005 InformationCopyright © 2005, The British Editorial Society of Bone and Joint Surgery: All rights reservedPDF download