Titanium Alloy Stem as a Cause for Adverse Reaction to Metal Debris after Bipolar Hemiarthroplasty

Abstract

A 68-year-old male with failure of bipolar hemiarthroplasty consistent with adverse reaction to metal debris (ARMD) who presented with a painful cystic lesion and lower extremity swelling was encountered. However, revision surgical findings showed no apparent cause of ARMD previously described in the literature, such as corrosion at the head-neck junction and articular abrasion. Therefore, it was difficult to make a definite diagnosis of failure secondary to ARMD, which consequently led to the decision to perform two-stage revision procedure, though the stem was firmly fixed. Postoperative analysis in the retrieval tissues showed that the metal debris mainly originated from the titanium alloy stem itself. Although this is a very rare case, one should be aware that even the well-fixed femoral components themselves have the potential to be the cause of ARMD.