Femoral revision: distal fixation with fluted, tapered grit-blasted stems.

Fluted, tapered grit-blasted titanium stems for revision total hip arthroplasty have been used extensively in Europe and have been reported to provide mostly favorable results. These stems are tapered to gain axial stability and fluted to gain rotational stability in the femoral diaphysis. Grit-blasted titanium provides a surface for bone ongrowth. Such implants can solve certain problems not addressed easily by other standard revision techniques. The clinical durability of modular implants, introduced to make these implants more user-friendly and more versatile, remains to be proved. These implants require special techniques for implantation, particularly when long-stemmed implants are used. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA).