Analysis of clinical data in patients with Girdlestone arthroplasty: a new score.

Girdlestone's arthroplasty is an uncommon surgical procedure; it is performed in patiens with recurrent infection of the hip, polymicrobic sepsis or after multiple revisions. The number of hip replacements all over the world is always increasing, so the total number of prosthesis infections also continues to rise, although the relative incidence is lower than in the past. For this reason Girdlestone's arthroplasty must be a well-known procedure to hip surgeons. Clinical assessment of such patients cannot be performed with common hip ratings (e.g. Harris Hip Score) since hip instability, low range of motion, limb shortening and severe muscle loss are common. The patient's independence in daily living activity and freedom from pain should be the surgeon's main goals. We propose a specific clinical score for the outcome of the procedure, which is not to be found in the current literature as far as the authors are aware. The score can be useful for comparative clinical trials, for legal medicine purposes, etc. To illustrate it, we present 20 cases of Girdlestone's arthroplasty out of 265 hip revisions performed in our hospital. The outcome of the procedure in our patients was clinically good in eight cases, intermediate in ten cases, and bad in two cases. We believe the performing of such an intervention is justified when indicated by clinical signs, as we analyse them in our work. Our clinical score has been shown to be adequate to assess the clinical presentation of such patients.