Canadian Academic Experience with Metal-On-Metal Hip Resurfacing (Survey‪)‬

Hip resurfacing arthroplasty has become an accepted alternative to traditional stemmed total hip arthroplasty in the young adult. (1) Early and midterm follow-up has shown comparable results to standard total hip arthroplasty. (2-9) However, complications unique to hip resurfacing arthroplasty have been identified, and the importance of patient selection and surgical technique in avoiding short-term failures has been emphasized. (10) As awareness increases in the medical community and the popular press, the demand for this procedure will continue to rise. As with any new surgical procedure, a learning curve is expected. Currently, there is little in the published literature regarding the type of training and exposure and volume of cases required to become proficient in this operative procedure. Recent papers on multicenter trials looking at the early outcome of hip resurfacing have shown higher failure rates, compared to single-surgeon centers of expertise. (11,12) The purpose of this study was to evaluate the early experience with metal-on-metal hip resurfacing in Canadian academic centers and report on the learning curve for high volume arthroplasty surgeons.