A Differentiated View on Short Stemmed Hip Arthroplasty – What are the Differences in Fixation and Biomechanics?

The present paper gives an overview of the different types of short stem total hip replacements. There is a pronounced inhomogeneity of the nomenclature in clinical practice as well as in regard to the scientific literature. Examples include neck preserving implants, meta-, epi- or metadiaphyseal fixed implants, microimplants, ultrashort implants, partial neck preserving implants, trochanteric sparing implants, implants with extra- and/or intramedullar fixation, implants without primary fixation, etc. Biomechanically, the short stems vary from very short, completely neck retaining versions up to implants which are just a shorter version of a standard implant. A frequently cited classification recommends the osteotomy level as a discriminating factor. This classification categorizes into a neck preserving, partial neck preserving and neck resecting short stems.