Recurrent dislocation following hip replacement: brief report.

A new method of preventing recurrent dislocation following total hip replacement was described by Olerud and Karlstr#{246}m (1985). It involves augmentation of the acetabular component with a sector cut from another acetabular prosthesis and screwed to the original implant. This procedure was performed on three of our patients with recurrent dislocation, but in each case the hip continued to dislocate after the operation, despite the fact that all three were performed (as recommended in the original paper) by experienced surgeons. In each case the failure was due to impingement of the neck of the femoral component on the augmentation. The added sector acted as a fulcrum for the femoral neck, causing the femoral head to be levered out of the acetabulum in the opposite direction to the original dislocation (Fig. 1).