Abstract

Postoperative radiographs of 111 patients who had undergone cemented total hip replacement performed or supervised by a single surgeon were analysed. All surgeries were performed via an anterolateral approach with patients in the lateral position. Patients were stratified according to Body Mass Index (BMI) into three groups (healthy, overweight and obese) and acetabular cup angles were measured. Mean values for cup abduction angle were similar for all three groups (44.5°, 46.8°, 44.0° respectively, p = 0.335). Furthermore there were no differences in mean cup anteversion between groups (11.6°, 12.2° and 10.7° respectively, p = 0.665). We conclude that obesity does not necessarily influence the accuracy of cup positioning in total hip replacement.