J Korean Orthop Assoc.  2012 Oct;47(5):392-396. 10.4055/jkoa.2012.47.5.392.

Early Comminuted Fracture of an Alumina Liner in a Ceramic on Ceramic Total Hip Arthroplasty

• Park JS
• Kim WJ
• Soh JW
• Jung HW
• Suh YS

• KMID: 2185325
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4055/jkoa.2012.47.5.392

Abstract

The authors experienced a case of early fracture of an alumina ceramic liner after ceramic-on-ceramic total hip arthroplasty, without any history of trauma. A 47-year-old male visited our center, due to a sudden crunching sound from the right hip at three weeks, after a ceramic-on-ceramic total hip arthroplasty for the osteonecrosis of right femoral head. Plain radiographs revealed multiple radio-opaque fragments around the displaced neck of the femoral stem. There were severely comminuted fracture of the ceramic liner with slight black staining of the surrounding tissue, and even damaged the surface of the ceramic head, on the operative field. The fractured liner and a damaged head were replaced with a new ceramic liner and head, after the removal of the fractured ceramic fragments, as completely as possible. Careful follow up with a caution for early ceramic liner fracture should be required in ceramic-on-ceramic total hip arthroplasty.

Keyword

ceramic liner fracture; early; total hip arthroplasty

MeSH Terms

Aluminum Oxide
Arthroplasty
Ceramics
Follow-Up Studies
Fractures, Comminuted
Head
Hip
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neck
Osteonecrosis
Aluminum Oxide
Ceramics

Figure

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  Figure 1 Immediate postoperative (A) anteroposterior and (B) lateral radiographs of the right hip show well fixed implants with a good position.

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  Figure 2 The right hip (A) anteroposterior and (B) lateral view at postoperative 3 weeks show a multiple ceramic fragments around the eccentrically displaced neck of femoral stem.

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  Figure 3 (A) Comminuted fragments of fractured alumina ceramic liner. (B) Alumina ceramic head was scractched and metal tinged.

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