CORR Insights^®: Hard-on-hard Bearings Are Associated With Increased Noise Generation in Young Patients Undergoing Hip Arthroplasty

Excerpt

The study by Nam and colleagues sheds some light on a controversial subject: Noise generation in THA. Even considering the methodological limitations of a survey inquiry using this design, the findings of the study appear remarkable to me; 9% (61 of 682) of young patients with THA reported noise generation. The most attention-grabbing—and somewhat alarming—finding was that “noises” were associated with increased pain and joint stiffness. Similarly, Cogan et al. [2], in a retrospective study of 365 ceramic-on-ceramic (CoC) THAs, reported a disturbingly high frequency of “noisy” joints (42%) in the cohorts of patients with poor subjective results, while hip noise was less frequent (11%) in patients with satisfactory results. This observation is not surprising, considering the contemporary high functional expectations of young patients requiring THA. …