Clinical comparative study of porous coated tantalum rod system in the early nontraumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head

Abstract

Objective To compare the effect of the porous coating tantalum rod implant and conservative treatment in early and mid-time of early nontraumatic femoral head necrosis. Methods A retrospective study of sixty femoral head necrosis patients with 80 hips admitted to the department of Joint Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from June 2012 to January 2017 were conducted. According to the different treatment methods, they were divided into conservative treatment group (conservative group, 30 cases, 40 hips) and core decompression porous tantalum rod implantation (tantalum rod group, 30 cases, 40 hips). Postoperative complications, radiological assessment and clinical using the Harris hip score were evaluated. Results In the conservative group, 27 cases (36 hips) were followed up, 3 cases (4 hips) were lost, 20 cases (27 hips) were followed up in tantalum rod group, 10 cases (13 hips) missed. The mean follow-up time was 26±6 months (3 to 62 months). Harris score of conservative group and tantalum rod group before treatment, 12 months after treatment and last follow-up were analyzed through repeated measurement design analysis of variance showing that there was significant difference between the two groups (F=3046.153, P=0.000), there was interaction between groups and time points (F=5883.563, P=0.000), the differences of each time point except the first time point were statistically significant; the difference between the tantalum rod group and the other two groups was statistically significant at each time point (F=2563.841, P=0.000). Two groups had difference in survival analysis (Log rank=87.432, P<0.001). Conclusion The porous coating tantalum implant could bring better short-intermediate term effect than conservative group. Key words: Tantalum; Internal fixators; Femur head necrosis