Minimally invasive hip replacement: rationale, applied anatomy, and instrumentation.

The term minimally invasive hip replacement encompasses a diverse range of surgical approaches through which hip replacement may be performed. These surgical approaches are technically demanding and are best performed using specially designed instruments that help to compensate for the reduced surgical exposure. The early results using these techniques are encouraging, although the literature is lacking evidence from well designed prospective trials comparing MIS techniques with standard approaches. The studies that exist suggest that patient satisfaction is high, bleeding may be reduced, recovery of function may be faster, and there may be the potential to reduce lengths of hospital stay, and all this may be achieved without increasing complication rates. These results,however, have been achieved by a small number of high-volume surgeons, and the authors feel it is essential that as these techniques are introduced into widespread practice the results be studied carefully.