Dr. Dorr posits theory on failure of Zimmer Durom cups
At the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons this past February, Dr. Lawrence Dorr and three of his colleagues – Dr. Zhinian Wan, Dr. William Long, and Dr. Manish Dastane of Los Angeles, California – presented a poster on patient outcomes involving the Zimmer Durom cup. In the poster abstract, the group reports:
The [...]
The Durom cup failed fixation leading to a radiographic failure rate of aseptic loosening of 1 in 4 cups and clinical failure in 2 of 10 patients. The cause of failure is the cup geometry and sharp peripheral fins which result in peripheral fixation without contact of fixation surface to acetabular bone in some hips. Because we cannot predict in which patients this will occur we no longer use the Durom cup.
According to Dr. Dorr and his colleagues’ findings, approximately 25% of Durom patients had experienced loosening of their Durom cup by the time of this presentation, while at least 20% had to undergo a revision surgery to revise their failed Durom implant.
The theory posited by these renowned surgeons is that there is a problem with the design of the cup, itself, rather than a matter of mere surgical technique, as Zimmer has implied.