Late dislocation is associated with recurrence after total hip arthroplasty

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the risk factors for recurrent dislocation after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and test the hypothesis that late dislocations are associated with recurrence. Methods: A total of 1,250 hips in 1,017 patients were retrospectively reviewed. All operations were performed through the posterolateral approach with posterior soft tissue repair. An early or late dislocation was defined as a dislocation occurring before or after one year postoperatively, respectively. Results: Dislocation occurred in 36 hips (2.9 %) and 20 of them experienced recurrence. Recurrent dislocations were observed in ten out of 25 hips (40.0 %) with early dislocation; however, ten out of 11 hips (90.9 %) with late dislocation experienced recurrence (p = 0.0046). Multivariate analysis revealed that late dislocation was significantly associated with recurrence with odds ratio of 5.94 per year. Seven in 20 hips with recurrent dislocation required surgical treatment. Conclusion: Late dislocation significantly contributed to the development of recurrent dislocations.