Transitioning to the Direct Anterior Approach in Total Hip Arthroplasty: Is It Safe in the Current Health Care Climate?

The direct anterior approach for total hip arthroplasty has recently gained interest for its quicker short-term recovery despite concerns about increased complications and operative time, especially during the steep learning curve period. The primary goal of this study was to determine if the transition from a posterior approach to a direct anterior approach for total hip arthroplasty can be achieved without harming patient safety. This is a retrospective cohort single-surgeon study of consecutive primary total hip arthroplasties performed over a transition period from posterior to direct anterior (DA) approach. A total of 412 patients (211 anterior, 201 posterior) were included with no significant demographic differences between cohorts. There were no significant differences between the DA and posterior group in 30-day readmission rates (2.84% vs 2.49%, P = .823), 90-day readmission rates (4.27 vs 5.97, P = .432), complication rate (6.16% vs 3.48%, P = .206), or revision rate (1.90% vs 2.99%, P = .535). The DA group had a significantly lower percentage of cases outside the goal abduction angle range (35°-50°) than the posterior group (9.52%, n = 20 vs 19.6%, n = 39, P < .01). The number of cases outside the goal leg length discrepancy range (±10 mm) was not significantly different (P = .846) between the DA (12.9%) and posterior (13.6%) groups. This single-surgeon study demonstrates that the DA approach can be transitioned to safely with no significant increase in complications or readmissions over a high-volume experienced surgeon's first 200 cases. Furthermore, our results endorse the consistency of the DA approach during the learning curve period in regard to component positioning compared to posterior approach.