Is revision as good as primary hip replacement? A comparison of quality oflife

Primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most effective ways of i mproving quality of life (QoL). We have compared the improvement in QoL in 62 patients who had a cemented revision of a THA with that of 62 primary re placements. One year after operation the median QoL score had been significantly improv ed in both groups; from 0.870 to 0.990 in the primary group (p < 0.0001) an d from 0.870 to 0.980 in the revised group (p < 0.0001). There was no signi ficant difference in the improvement in scores between the groups (p = 0.29 ). When reviewed after four years there was no difference in the pain score fo r either group (p = 0.89), but that for function had deteriorated significa ntly. This was associated with revision surgery (p = 0.018) and a low preop erative QoL score (p = 0.004), We conclude that both primary and revision operations give a significant im provement in the QoL but function after revision may be less durable than a fter a primary arthroplasty.