A review of pre-clinical testing of femoral stem subsidence and comparison with clinical data.

Immediate postoperative stability of femoral stems is one of the key factors for the long-term success of total hip replacement. The need to develop a reliable technique to assess in vitro implant stability under physiological loading conditions is widely recognized. A critical review of the in vitro techniques developed for the assessment of implant stability is presented. In vitro predictions of subsidence are compared to in vivo clinical data available from Roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA) studies. Limited correlation between in vitro predictions of stability and clinical measurements of subsidence obtained through RSA data was found even though similar migration patterns could be distinguished.