The long-term results of the original Exeter polished cemented femoral component: a follow-up report.

We present a long-term follow-up report of the results of the original Exeter polished cemented stems inserted between November 1970 and the end of 1975 at our institution by surgeons of widely differing experience using crude cementing techniques. The results of this series were reported in 1988 (Fowler et al. Orthopaedic Clinics of North America. 1988;19:477) and again in 1993 (Timperley et al. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. 1993;75-B:33). There have been no failures from aseptic femoral component loosening since the 1993 report. From the original series of 433 hips, there were, at the end of 2003, 26 living patients with 33 hips. Of the latter, there were 25 hips in 20 patients with their original femoral components still in situ. Twenty-eight (6.46%) hips from the original series have been lost to follow-up, although none since 1992. With the end point reoperation for aseptic stem loosening, the survivorship is 93.5% (95% confidence interval, 90.0%-97.0%). The reoperation rate for aseptic femoral component loosening is 3.23% into the 33rd year of follow-up.