Stair Climbing is More Detrimental to the Cement in Hip Replacement than Walking

Stair climbing may be detrimental to cemented total hip arthroplasties, because it subjects the reconstruction to high torsional loads. The current study investigated how stair climbing contributes to damage accumulation in the cement around a femoral stem compared with walking, taking into account the different frequencies of these activities during patient functioning. In finite element analyses, the damage accumulation process in the cement mantle around a Lubinus SPII stem was simulated for three different loading histories: (1) isolated walking, representative for patients who climb no stairs; (2) isolated stair climbing; (3) alternating walking and stair climbing in a ratio of nine to one cycles, representative for patients who climb many stairs. Relative to isolated walking, isolated stair climbing increased the amount of cement damage by a factor of 6. Inclusion of 10% stair climbing cycles in the loading history increased the amount of damage by 47% relative to isolated walking. Stair climbing produced damage along the entire stem, whereas isolated walking produced damage proximomedially and around the tip only. This study confirmed that stair climbing is more risky for failure of cemented femoral stems than walking. A few stair climbing cycles during daily patient functioning increases the amount of cement damage dramatically.