Highly Porous Titanium Acetabular Components in Primary and Revision Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review

A number of papers have been published reporting on the clinical performance of highly porous coated titanium acetabular cups in primary and revision total hip arthroplasty (THA). However, no systematic review of the literature has been published to date.

The US National Library of Medicine (PubMed/MEDLINE), Embase, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were queried for publications utilizing the following keywords: “tritanium” OR “highly-porous” AND “titanium” OR “acetabular” AND “trabecular” AND “titanium”.

Overall, 16 studies were included in this review (11,366 cases; 60% females, 2-7 years mean follow-up). The overall survival rate of highly porous titanium acetabular components in primary cases was 99.3% (10,811 of 10,886 cases), whereas the rate of aseptic loosening was 0.1%. The overall survival rate of the highly porous titanium acetabular components in revision THA cases was 93.5% (449 of 480 cases), whereas the rate of aseptic loosening was 2.1%.

There was moderate quality evidence to show that the use of highly porous titanium acetabular components in primary and revision THA cases is associated with satisfactory clinical outcomes in the short- and medium-term, without showing any evidence of cup migration or radiolucency. Taking into consideration that there is no evidence yet regarding the long-term survivorship of these components, we feel that further research of higher quality is required to generate more evidence-based conclusions regarding the longevity of highly porous titanium acetabular implants compared with conventional titanium counterparts.