The dislocating hip

Dislocation complicates between 1% and 3% of primary total hip arthroplasties (THAs) and 7% to 10% of revision procedures. Sixty percent of dislocations occur within the first 5 weeks. Closed reduction is successful in 67% of cases. If the hip keeps dislocating, revision surgery for instability is successful in only about 61% of patients. Many successful techniques have been described to deal with recurrent instability, including trochanteric advancement, modular component exchange, jumbo femoral heads, a bipolar or tripolar arthroplasty, or a constrained acetabular component. This article discusses the results of various surgical interventions and presents a treatment algorithm.