title: Utility of week one radiographs post total hip arthroplasty.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We retrospectively analysed 129 consecutive patients who underwent hip arthroplasty at a university-affiliated hospital in Melbourne, Australia between February and September 2011 with respect to the quality of the week one radiographs, placement of the prosthesis and the presence of a peri-prosthetic fracture or dislocation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patient records and radiographs were reviewed to ascertain whether a deviation in routine management occurred based on the information obtained from week one post-operative radiographs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  116 of the 129 patients met the inclusion criteria for the study. 115 patients underwent routine week one hip radiographs with a mean time after surgery of 2.5 days. 89 (77%) of these patients had radiographs with a typical post-operative appearance. 26 (23%) had radiographs with an atypical appearance defined by the presence of one or more of the following: offset difference of >10 mm (11%), leg length difference of >10 mm (11%), sub-optimal acetabular component inclination of <30° or >50° (9%), sub-optimal femoral stem position of >5° varus or valgus (2%), sub-optimal femoral Greun cement distribution of 2 or more absent zones (2%), cement extrusion (1%), peri-prosthetic fracture (0) or dislocation (0). None of the routine week one radiographs resulted in a change in early post-operative management. 1 patient underwent non-routine, immediate post-operative radiographs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study did not demonstrate a case where deviation from standard clinical pathways occurred as a result of routine post-operative radiographs. A higher power study would help the established surgeon to determine whether post-operative radiographs could be performed at a more comfortable and convenient time such as the outpatient setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Jarrad
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Frans
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: van Tonder
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schlicht
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Love
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Miron
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goldwasser
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Choong
keywords: Arthroplasty; Hip; Orthopaedic surgery; Other categories; Radiograph