Statins may help improve hip replacement outcomes

Washington, May 4 (ANI): Cholesterol-lowering drugs statins may play an important role in decreasing complications among patients undergoing total hip replacement (THR), according to a new study.

The study has been published in the May 2010 issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS).

"We found that use of statins substantially reduced the risk of revision after hip replacement surgery, indicating that the biological effects of statins may play a role in the sustainability of hip implants," said Theis Thillemann, MD, fellow in the department of orthopaedic surgery, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.

Using records from the Danish Hip Arthroplasty Registry, a national database of patients who had hip replacement, Dr. Thillemann and his colleagues evaluated the effect of statin use on the need for revision surgery and found that patients who were taking statins for cholesterol control postoperatively had a significantly lower risk of revision during the 10-year period following THR. In addition, the researchers noted the risk of revision decreased with longer use of the statins.

"In hip replacement surgery, nearly 80 percent of patients are older than 60 years," he noted. "As a result, many of these patients have chronic medical diseases for which they are taking medicine. Although it's recognized that many of these drugs affect bone metabolism, currently there is limited information on the implications of other medical treatments on implant survival after THR."

"The survival of a hip implant is related to many different mechanisms," Dr. Thillemann noted. "Statins have been associated with improved bone metabolism, improved anti-inflammatory effects and improved prognosis after infections," added Dr. Thillemann. (ANI)