OBJECTIVE: Describe radiography results relating to proximal adaptive bone remodeling (also know as stress shielding) obtained in a group of patients submitted to uncemented ATQs with AML implants. METHODS: Radiography results of a group of 39 patients (44 hips) were analyzed after a follow-up period of 11 years and four months who had been submitted to total uncemented hip arthroplasty with AML prosthesis (Anatomic Medullary Locking®, De Puy, Warsaw, USA). Mean patient age at the time of surgery was 44.97 years. RESULTS: Adaptive bone remodeling analysis was performed by comparing X-rays made in the immediate post-operative period and after ten years of follow-up. The proximal femur was divided into four levels, both AP and profile. Each level was divided into medial (M), lateral (L), anterior (A), and posterior (P), in a total of 16 sites of inspection. As the 44 cases required inspection in 32 sites (16 in the immediate post-operative period and 16 after the long term follow-up), a total pf 1.408 inspections were analyzed. The extension of bone resorption was divided into four grades: grade 0, no sign of bone resorption; grade I, one to four sites of resorption; grade II five to seven sites of resorption; grade III, eight or more sites of resorption. The most common sites of resorption were 1M, 1L, 1A, and 1P, with the appearance of changes in forty patients (90.90%). CONCLUSION: In this series of patients, stress shielding, although present in most arthroplasties performed, did not represent a factor that disturbed the arthroplasty in the first 10 years.
Arthroplasty, replacement, hip; Hip prosthesis; Bone resorption; Radiography; Follow-up studies
