An independent clinical research centre helping surgeons and patients understand why metal-on-metal hip replacements fail.
152 orthopaedic surgeons have contributed 2000 failed metal-on-metal hip components (1000 hips) from 60 hospitals and 16 countries. The LIRC is funded from a variety of sources including nine implant manufacturers.The London Implant Retrieval Centre (LIRC) was set up in 2008 by two consultant orthopaedic surgeons, Alister Hart (Imperial College London and Charing Cross Hospital) and John Skinner (Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore).
In 2011 we had 21 papers accepted for publication and in 2012 we are presenting 12 further papers at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons to help understand the variability in clinical outcome of patients with MOM hips.
We have assessed > 400 patients with painful metal-on-metal hips and performed revision operations on > 100 of these patients. This clinical activity has contributed to our research which in turn has contributed to our clinical decision making and development of guidelines for patients referred to us: a clinical translational research program.
Our clinical guidelines work has been adopted by
What do we do?
CT with wear patch
We aim to better understand the mechanism of failure of metal-on-metal hip replacements. We currently use this knowledge to help surgeons, our patients referred to us and implant manufacturers to determine:
- when to revise?
- which patients with a MOM hip are at risk of future problems?
- how to select patients for MOM hip replacement?
- can the design of MOM hips be improved?
- can the metallurgy of MOM hips be improved?
- can the technique of implanting hips be improved?
152 consultant orthopaedic surgeons have sent us failed hip implants from 60 hospitals in the UK and 16 countries worldwide.
Please see articles in the British Orthopaedic News (BON) about our history:
We have developed a standard operating protocol for hip wear analysis. This has been validated with the assistance of the Centre for Precision Technologies.
