Constrained liners in revision total hip arthroplasty: An overuse syndrome - In the affirmative

Instability after primary, and revision total hip arthroplasty continues to be problematic for the surgeon. The use of constrained liners, Which use a locking mechanism to capture the femoral head, has increased to help manage this problem. Constrained liners, however, present problems with acetabular component loosening, dissociation of the liner/shell interface, failure by breakage, and excessive polyethylene wear. Rather than resort to constrained liners, our approach has been to restore joint stability with large-diameter femoral heads. The advantages are increased range of motion due to more favorable head/neck ratio, increased resistance to dislocation due to increased jump distance, and the avoidance of skirted femoral heads. With the addition of cross-linked polyethylene, the volumetric wear associated with large heads is much decreased and makes this a viable option today.