Few studies have reported risk factors for stress shielding. We sought to evaluate clinical and radiographic outcomes of a proximally hydroxyapatite-coated straight tapered titanium femoral component stem during a minimum 5-year follow-up and identify factors associated with high-degree stress shielding.
A total of 156 total hip arthroplasties (n = 124; 98 women and 26 men; mean age, 56.5 years) with a minimum follow-up period of 5 years were included in the study. Clinical and radiologic measurements at follow-up (range, 5-16.3 years; mean, 10.2 years) were analyzed.
The mean preoperative Harris Hip Score (HHS) was 56.6, and the mean HHS at the latest follow-up was considerably improved at 86.8. Stress shielding at the latest follow-up was low degree in 136 (87%) hips and high degree in 20 (13%) hips. On average, high-degree stress shielding occurred 9.9 years (5-14 years) after surgery. The results of Cox proportional hazard analysis showed that a canal bone ratio ≥ 0.49 was an independent risk factor for high-degree stress shielding (P = .0075; hazard ratio, 3.981). HHS at the latest follow-up was significantly lower in high-degree stress shielding than in low-degree stress shielding (80.7 and 87.7, respectively; P = .0030).
Preoperative canal bone ratio ≥ 0.49 is independently associated with high-degree stress shielding. In addition, the number of cases with high-degree stress shielding significantly increased over time during a mean 10-year follow-up.