How long will your hip replacement last?

I had a hip replacement and I asked when I had it done, how long should it last, the doctor was vague on his response. So, I think are most specialist but there is no need, a study called How long does a hip replacement last? A systematic review and meta-analysis of case series and national registry reports with more than 15 years of follow-up by Jonathan T Evans, MRCS, Jonathan P Evans, MSc, Robert W Walker, MRCS, Prof Ashley W Blom, PhD, Michael R Whitehouse, PhD, Adrian Sayers, MSc released in February 2019 has an answer to the question, how long will my hip replacement last?

My Hip replacement was not easy and my goal is to not have to have another one, which is also the aim of the medical professionals. However, all hip replacements will eventually fail because of processes such as infection, fracture, or a combination of normal processes, such as loosening and wear.

For doctors to counsel patients accurately and appropriately, it is important to know how long a total hip replacement might last. Life expectancy is rising and thus the long-term survivorship of the total hip replacement is increasingly relevant

The ultimate aim, that all hip replacements provide a normal pain-free function for the rest of the recipient's lives, has not been achieved as of yet. In the UK, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence set a benchmark in 2014, that individual components making up a total hip replacement are only recommended for people with end-stage arthritis if they have 10-year revision rates of 5% or lower.

The typical patient who had a hip replacement in the UK in 2016 was 69·8 years old if female or 67·6 years old if male, and had a BMI of 28·8. 90% of hip replacements were done for osteoarthritis and 60% of recipients were female.

Similar demographics are reported by the national registries in Scandinavia, Australia, and the Netherlands.

There is hope however, hip replacements are getting better and lasting longer. Here is some of what they have to say in their research.

“In conclusion, although there is not enough information yet available to calculate exactly how long a hip replacement will last, using available arthroplasty registry data, we estimate that about three-quarters of hip replacements last 15–20 years and just over half of hip replacements last 25 years in patients with osteoarthritis.“

They did a systematic review and meta-analysis with a search of MEDLINE and Embase from the start of records to Sept 12, 2017. They included articles reporting 15-year survival of primary, conventional total hip replacement constructs in patients with osteoarthritis. They were very thorough as they reviewed implant data and reports of national joint replacement registries, after all of their research they said “assuming that estimates from national registries are less likely to be biased, patients and surgeons can expect a hip replacement to last 25 years in around 58% of patients

Total hip replacement is one of the most common and effective forms of surgery, resulting in generally excellent outcomes and it is getting better.