A correlative study of clinical and histological findings of revision hip arthroplasty for rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory joint disease.

OBJECTIVE

Primary hip arthroplasty in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other forms of inflammatory joint disease (IJD) is generally thought to be associated with a less favourable outcome in terms of implant survival and other complications. Whether the duration of implant survival correlates with the degree of rheumatoid-like inflammatory changes in periprosthetic tissues is uncertain.

METHODS

Histopathological changes in periprosthetic tissues obtained following revision surgery of 34 total hip replacements on 27 patients with IJD (RA 18 cases: ankylosing spondylitis three cases; juvenile chronic arthritis six cases) were examined.

RESULTS

A heavy diffuse lymphocyte and plasma cell infiltrate +/- lymphoid aggregates was noted in 29% of cases in whom the mean implant survival was 5.6 years (range: 2-8 years). Where little or no lymphocytic infiltrate was noted in periprosthetic tissues, the mean implant survival was 8.6 years (range: 1-17 years). Revision arthroplasty was not undertaken for early or late infection of a primary hip replacement.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that implant survival is less in those cases where there is a heavy lymphocyte and plasma-cell infiltrate in periprosthetic tissues. These findings suggest that the presence of a heavy chronic inflammatory-cell infiltrate in periprosthetic tissues is likely to be a contributory factor in causing early implant failure in RA.