RESULTS: Substantial necrosis and a heavy macrophage infiltrate were noted in most periprosthetic tissues, including all pseudotumors, many of which contained a prominent ALVAL infiltrate. Most pseudotumors (80%) were associated with highly worn prostheses. It was noted that the extent of necrosis and macrophage infiltration correlated with the volume of generated metal wear. Although increased wear volume moderately correlated with a high ALVAL response, all pseudotumors associated with low wear had a strong ALVAL response.
CONCLUSIONS: The majority of pseudotumors are associated with increased implant wear. This increased wear is associated with soft-tissue necrosis and a heavy nonspecific foreign-body macrophage response coupled with a variable adaptive or specific immune response (ALVAL). A minority of pseudotumors are associated with low wear and a prominent immune response. These findings confirm that minimizing wear from metal-on-metal hip resurfacing arthroplasty prostheses would lead to a reduction in the incidence of pseudotumor. However, a small number of pseudotumors are still likely to occur, which may be due to an exacerbated adaptive immune response.
PMID: 23783212 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Read more... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23783212?dopt=Abstract
