Recovery of sciatic nerve injuries in association with total hip arthroplasty in 27 patients

We analyzed 27 sciatic nerve injuries associated with total hip arthroplast y (THA). The patients were 23 women and 4 men, and their median age was 55 years (range, 28-75 years). In 1987 to 1995, 4,339 THAs were performed. Pri mary arthroplasties accounted for 3,471 and 868 were revisions. Nine patien ts had developmental dysplasia of the hip. Six operations were revisions. R adiologic lengthening was median 1.4 cm (range, -1 to 4.1 cm); in 8 cases, lengthening was greater than 2 cm. The median follow-up period was 58 month s (range, 24-110 months). Eight patients recovered fully, the recovery of 7 patients was fair, and 12 patients had a considerable permanent disability . The risk of nerve injury was not related to the extent of lengthening. Th e recovery of the nerve injury was only weakly correlated to its primary po stoperative extent. The sciatic nerve injury rate was 0.6%.