The Direct Anterior Approach Total Hip Arthroplasty

A comprehensive literature review found only three prospective randomized clinical trials (RCT) comparing the DAA with another approach with greater than one-year follow-up.

Two showed minor benefits within the early postoperative period only, and one of those showed poorer mid-term results. Most of the published comparison studies with short follow-up show longer surgical times and greater blood loss for the DAA, and many three-month comparison studies show higher complication rates for the DAA using a proprietary traction table.

The complications included problems with wound healing, lateral femoral cutaneous nerve injury, femoral component loosening, and femoral fractures. Because of the lack of evidence from RCTs showing superiority of the DAA over other approaches and reports of higher complications, the opinion of a large majority (77.5%; 55/71) of HS surgeons was that the DAA lacks sufficient evidence to warrant its use.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2020;102-B(7 Supple B):57–61. [read more]