Evaluation of the femoral stem implant in canine total hip arthroplasty: A cadaver study

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a successful surgical treatment for both patients with chronical lameness and dogs who are nonresponsive to medical treatments, providing excellent joint function for returning dogs to the normal gait in 80% to 98% of hip dysplasia (HD) patients. The THA surgical implant system manufactured by BioMedtrix and Kyon are today widely accepted. When comparing the BioMedtrix biological fixation (BFX) system to the BioMedtrix cemented fixation (CFX) system, the many advantages of BFX, which include longer potential implant life, decreased risk of postoperative or later infection, and better implant stability, become evident. However, BFX implies a greater risk of femoral fracture during reaming and requires a more precise surgical technique to achieve good implant fit, given the press-fit nature of cementless THA. The purposes of this study are to both describe the mistakes and complications during stem implantation for beginner surgeons with both the BFX and the CFX systems and to document the initial result of 12 implantations in canine cadavers. Given the detailed evaluations of 3 specialists, who are Diplomate American College of Veterinary Surgeons (DACVS), only 3 of 11 stems were appropriately sized. Specifically, 6 stems were anteverted rather than being retroverted; further, although 7 stems were coaxial with the femoral long axis in the frontal plane, the other stems were in the varus at the frontal plane, with the proximal medial stem adjacent to the medial femoral cortex. Moderate angulation from the cranial to the caudal directions was found in 4 cases in the sagittal plane. Additionally, 1 case of femoral fissure and 1 case of perforated femoral cortex were reported. It is not easy for surgeons performing cementless THA for the first time to achieve a good result, even though they completed an educational course about it and given that catastrophic complications often occurred during early surgical clinical cases. Therefore, ex-vivo studies are sincerely required to get an expertise by rehearsing the preparation of the femoral envelop in isolated bones. Further studies should be conducted to achieve both highly accurate implant size and correct orientation during the preoperative planning. Additionally, surgeons’ learning curve should be examined in future investigations.