Fink et al. Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research 2010, 5:46 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Comparison of a minimally invasive posterior approach and the standard posterior approach for total hip arthroplasty A prospective and comparative study Bernd Fink*, Alexander Mittelstaedt, Martin S Schulz, Pavol Sebena, Joachim Singer Abstract Background: It is not clear whether total hip arthroplasty performed via a minimally invasive approach leads to less muscle trauma compared to the standard approach. Materials and methods: To investigate whether a minimally invasive posterior approach for total hip arthroplasty results in lower levels of muscle-derived enzymes and better post-operative clinical results than those obtained with the. | Fink et al. Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research 2010 5 46 http content 5 1 46 JOURNAL OF ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY AND RESEARCH RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Comparison of a minimally invasive posterior approach and the standard posterior approach for total hip arthroplasty A prospective and comparative study Bernd Fink Alexander Mittelstaedt Martin S Schulz Pavol Sebena Joachim Singer Abstract Background It is not clear whether total hip arthroplasty performed via a minimally invasive approach leads to less muscle trauma compared to the standard approach. Materials and methods To investigate whether a minimally invasive posterior approach for total hip arthroplasty results in lower levels of muscle-derived enzymes and better post-operative clinical results than those obtained with the standard posterolateral approach fifty patients in both groups were compared in a prospective and comparative study. The following parameters were examined muscle-derived enzymes CPK CK-MM and myoglobin pre-operatively 24 and 48 hours post-operatively CRP and hemoglobin on the third postoperative day loss of blood daily pain levels the rate of recovery time taken to attain predefined functional parameters the Oxford Hip Score the SF-36 score and the WOMAC score pre-operatively and six weeks post-surgery the position of the implant and the cement coating by post-operative X-ray examination. Results and Conclusions The minimally invasive operated patients exhibited a significantly lower loss of blood significantly less pain at rest and a faster rate of recovery but the clinical chemistry values and the other clinical parameters were comparable. Background A number of different so-called minimally invasive approaches are being used more and more for total hip arthroplasty. In principle they can be divided into two groups the muscle-sparing approaches and the miniincision approaches. The former group where muscles are not cut includes the two-incision technique the .
