Current Trends of Stem Use in Hemiarthroplasty for Femoral Neck Fracture in South Korea

BACKGROUND: Hemiarthroplasty is a common operation to treat femoral neck fracture in elderly patients. The choice of whether to use cemented stem or cementless stem in hemiarthroplasty has been controversial in clinical practice. However, recent trends regarding stem choice in South Korea are not known or documented. In this study, we assessed the trends of stem fixation in hemiarthroplasty for femoral neck fractures in South Korea. METHODS: Data of patients with femoral neck fractures, who were operated on between the years of 2007 and 2011 and were ≥ 50 years old at the time of operation, were obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. All new visits or admissions to clinics or hospitals for femoral neck fractures were identified using the International Classification of Disease Tenth Revision diagnostic code (S720). The trends in the utilization of cemented and cementless hemiarthroplasty were then analyzed. RESULTS: The proportion of cementless hemiarthroplasty increased from 42.7% of all surgical procedures in 2007 to 61.4% of all surgical procedures in 2011 (p < 0.001), while the use of cemented hemiarthroplasty demonstrated a corresponding decrease. CONCLUSIONS: There was a current trends towards using cementless stems in hemiarthroplasty for femoral neck fractures in South Korea.