There was no major difference in the rate of complications .
Conclusions Short-term recovery favors limited incision over st and ard incision THA .
Background The literature comparing  limited incision and st and ard incision THAs  is confusing regarding whether limited incision THA improves short-term recovery without compromising long-term durability and survival .
Further , previously published meta-analyses can not conclude that limited incision THA is better .
With new data , we seek to discover if the answers now exist .
Purpose We used meta- analysis to compare surgical and hospitalization data , clinical outcomes , and complication rates , and thus ( 1 ) confirm whether limited incision THA is at least comparable to st and ard incision THA ; and ( 2 ) determine whether limited incision THA is an improvement over st and ard incision THA .
Early pain relief and function after posterior minimally invasive and conventional total hip arthroplasty. A prospective, randomized, blinded study.
BACKGROUND Few prospect i ve r and omized studies have demonstrated benefits of minimally invasive total hip arthroplasty when compared with conventional total hip arthroplasty . We hypothesized that patients treated with a posterior mini-incision would have better results than those treated with a posterior long incision with regard to the achievement of established goals for pain relief and functional recovery permitting hospital discharge by the second postoperative day . METHODS Sixty of 231 eligible patients were r and omized ( with thirty in each group ) to have a total hip arthroplasty performed through either a posterior mini-incision ( 10 + /- 2 cm ) or a traditional long incision ( 20 + /- 2 cm ) . After completion of the total hip arthroplasty , the mini-incision group underwent extension of the skin incision to 20 cm . Patients were evaluated on the basis of self-determined pain scores , requirements for pain medicine , need for assistive gait devices , and time until discharge . Gait analysis provided objective functional assessment . RESULTS The average hospital stay was 63.2 + /- 13.3 hours in the mini-incision group and 73.6 + /- 23.5 hours in the long-incision group ( p = 0.04 ) . More patients with a mini-incision were discharged by the second postoperative day ( p = 0.003 ) and more were using just a single assistive device at the time of discharge ( p = 0.005 ) . As scored on a verbal analog scale of 0 to 10 points , patients with a mini-incision had less pain on each postoperative day and the pain score remained significantly lower at the time of discharge ( mean , 2.2 + /- 1.0 points compared with 3.1 + /- 0.9 points in the long-incision group ; p = 0.002 ) . After hospital discharge , there were no clinical differences in pain or function between the two groups of patients . CONCLUSIONS Compared with conventional total hip arthroplasty performed through a posterior incision , posterior minimally invasive total hip arthroplasty result ed in better early pain control , earlier discharge to home , and less use of assistive devices . Subsequent evaluations at six weeks and three months showed equivalency between the clinical results in the two groups . LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic Level
There was no major difference in the rate of complications .
Conclusions Short-term recovery favors limited incision over st and ard incision THA .
Background The literature comparing  limited incision and st and ard incision THAs  is confusing regarding whether limited incision THA improves short-term recovery without compromising long-term durability and survival .
Further , previously published meta-analyses can not conclude that limited incision THA is better .
With new data , we seek to discover if the answers now exist .
Purpose We used meta- analysis to compare surgical and hospitalization data , clinical outcomes , and complication rates , and thus ( 1 ) confirm whether limited incision THA is at least comparable to st and ard incision THA ; and ( 2 ) determine whether limited incision THA is an improvement over st and ard incision THA .