Is there a role for cementless primary stem in hip arthroplasty for early or late fixation failures of intertrochanteric fractures?

BACKGROUND: The choice of femur stems during the hip arthroplasty procedures for patients with treatment failure of intertrochanteric fractures (ITF) remains controversial. We aimed to compare the surgical complication and reoperation rates between cementless primary and revision stems in the early (≤3 months) and late (> 3 months) fixation failures of ITF. METHODS: This was a retrospective, cohort study conducted in a single, tertiary referral hospital of Taipei, Taiwan. We included hip arthroplasty procedures for failed ITF using cementless primary or revision stems. There were 40 and 35 patients who had early and late fixation failure of ITF, respectively. The patient demographics, time to fixation failure, surgical complications and medical complications were recorded for analysis. RESULTS: We included 75 patients that underwent hip arthroplasty procedure for failed ITF using cementless primary (n = 38) or revision (n = 37) stems. The mean age was 79.3 years and 56% of the patients were female. In the early fixation failure group, the complication rate was similar between the primary and revision stems (44% vs. 29%, p = 0.343). However, there was a trend toward a higher reoperation rate (31% vs. 8%, p = 0.061) of using the primary stem, compared with the revision stem. In the late fixation failure group, the rate of complication and reoperation was similar between the two stem types. CONCLUSION: For early fixation failures of ITFs, we caution against the use of cementless primary stems due to a trend towards an increased risk of reoperations compared to the use of cementless revision stems. However, in late fixation failures of ITFs, there is a role for cementless primary stems. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III, retrospective cohort study. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12891-022-05223-x.