Forty patients from a group of seventy elected to participate in a
prospective randomized clinical study designed to evaluate the systemic
effects of polymethylmethacrylate implanted with a Charnley total hip
replacement, utilizing patients treated with a Ring total hip prosthesis ad
controls. Intraoperative alterations in cardiovascular function were
related to use of methylmethacrylate, but postoperative changes in
pulmonary function, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, serum lactic acid
dehydrogenase, serum glutamicoxalacetic transaminase, and alkaline
phosphatase were not. Charnley total hip replacements were associated with
more ectopic-bone formation twelve months postoperatively. The two "latent"
infections recognized during the thirty-four months of the study were in
hips without acrylic fixation.