Information for Medical Professionals
Groin pain following hip replacement 'hard to pin down'
It is difficult to pin down the exact cause of chronic hip pain in patients who have undergone metal-on-metal total hip arthroplasty, it has been claimed.
According to new research presented at the EFORT Congress 2010, close analysis of MRI images of painful hips - a condition which afflicts a few total hip arthroplasty patients - point to a number of causes.
Vasileios Nikolaou, lead researcher behind the new study, was reported by Ortho Supersite as saying: "A small proportion of patients with metal-on-metal implants complain about groin pain after surgery.
"It is difficult to determine the cause of the pain in these cases - there are many potential sources."
Nikolaou noted that atrophies, joint effusions, stress fractures, bone marrow oedema and muscle avulsions were equally distributed among those that underwent surgery - regardless of whether they had metal-on-metal arthroplasties or not.
"In our study [the findings] between patients with different metal ion levels and symptoms would suggest that the MRI findings cannot reliably explain the basis of pain associated with metal-on-metal total hip arthroplasty," Nikolaou concluded.
Orthopaedic surgeon John Cuckler recently told a gathering of specialists at the 26th Current Concepts in Joint Replacement Winter Meeting that any unexplained hip pain following surgery should be investigated thoroughly.
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