Usefulness of ceramic prosthesis in total hip replacement

AUGUSTOVSKI, F.; PICHON RIVIERE, A.; ALCARAZ, A.; BARDACH, A.; FERRANTE, D.; GARCIA MARTI, S.; GLUJOVSKY, D.; LOPEZ, A.; REGUEIRO, A.

Documentos de Evaluación de Tecnologías Sanitarias

IECS

Año: 2005 p. 1 - 30

1668-2793

This report is intended to assess the use of ceramic prostheses for total hip replacement compared with other existing materials (such as metal and polyethylene).A search on specific electronic databases (MEDLINE, Center for Reviews and Dissemination, LILACS) was performed as well as a global search in several sources to find Technology Evaluations and coverage policies. The key words for the search were ceramic, total hip replacement and arthroplasty and in MEDLINE, in particular, a sensitively methodological therapy filter was used with the following terms: ("hip replacement arthroplasty" [Text Word] OR "arthroplasty, replacement, hip" [MeSH Terms]) OR "ceramics" [MeSH Terms] OR ceramic [Text Word]).Fifty seven articles were found, of which 6 were chosen (Randomized clinical trial, three case series and one non-randomized controlled trial) for further evaluation. At the same time, two sanitary technological evaluations and three reports on coverage policies were included. The clinical trials that compared ceramic against conventional prostheses found no significant differences in the rates of prosthesis revision among the different types. In the case series of patients with the ceramic prosthesis analyzed, revision rates of prostheses at 10 years lower than 10% were found, which is considered within acceptable limits and comparable to those reported for conventional prostheses. Some health organizations at present cover both metallic and ceramic prostheses.