Background: So-called second-generation cementing techniques in total hip arthroplasty have been shown to provide better survival of the femoral component than first-generation methods do; however, surface finish and other features of the component design also influence the durability of the reconstruction. The purpose of this study was to determine the results of primary total hip replacement with use of a collared femoral component with a matte-finished surface fixed with second-generation cementing techniques and followed for ten to twenty years.

Methods: The study group consisted of 256 consecutive hips in 236 patients who had had a primary total hip arthroplasty with fixation of a Harris Design-2 femoral component with second-generation cementing techniques (use of an intramedullary plug and a cement gun). The mean age of the patients at the time of the operation was sixty-six years. One hundred and twelve patients were male, and 124 were female. Seven patients were lost to follow-up less than ten years after the operation. The median duration of follow-up of the living patients who had not had a revision was 15.4 years.

Results: At the time of the most recent follow-up, nineteen femoral components (7%) had been revised because of aseptic loosening, five (2%) had been removed because of deep infection, and one (0.4%) had been revised because of recurrent dislocation. The mean Harris hip score for the surviving patients who had not had a revision improved from 51 points preoperatively to 91 points at the most recent evaluation. At fifteen years, the estimated survival rate of the femoral components was 92.2% with revision due to aseptic loosening as the end point and 90.1% with mechanical failure (radiographic loosening or revision due to aseptic loosening) as the end point. Patients who were younger than fifty years old at the time of the operation had a lower fifteen-year rate of survival of the femoral implant, in terms of both revision due to aseptic loosening (72.3% compared with 95.7%, p = 0.0001) and mechanical failure (72.3% compared with 93.1%, p = 0.005), than did patients who were fifty years or older.

Conclusions: Fixation of this collared matte-finished femoral component with use of second-generation cementing techniques for primary total hip replacement provided satisfactory results at ten to twenty years in older patients but less satisfactory results in younger patients.