Jang Bob, Kanawati Andrew, Brazil Declan, Bruce Warwick
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Concord Hospital, New South Wales, Australia.
Signature Orthopaedics Australia, Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia.
J Orthop. 2013 May 24;10(2):95-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jor.2013.04.007. eCollection 2013.
Fatigue fracture of a femoral component in total hip arthroplasty is a rare occurrence but well documented in the literature. It is understood that proximal loosing of a femoral stem with a well fixed stem distally will result in cantilever bending and eventual fatigue fracture of the stem. Other factors which may potentiate a fatigue fracture are material design, implant positioning, and patient characteristics. More recently, laser etching on the femoral neck of an implant has resulted in fatigue fracture. We report a case of a fatigue fracture at the neck-shoulder junction in a well fixed, uncemented, femoral component due to laser etching in the region of high tensile stress.