We are concerned that a non-peer-reviewed study on a sample of 30 patients on which you reported will cause unnecessary concern to millions of patients with hip replacements (UK study highlights heart disease risk from older types of hip replacement, 26 April).
The same patient safety question has been explored using data from the National Joint Registry, the world’s largest repository of joint replacement surgery and patient outcomes. The peer-reviewed study (Bone Joint Journal 2022; 104-B(3):359-367), involving 374,359 patients with 14.5 years of follow-up, concluded that cobalt-chrome-containing hip replacements did not have an increased risk of clinically meaningful heart disease. Such patients tended to live a little longer than patients without cobalt-chrome-containing implants.
Prof Sir Paul Curran Chair, National Joint Registry (NJR), Mr Tim Wilton Medical director, NJR, Prof Mark Wilkinson Chair, NJR research committee, and key author of the NJR research cited, Prof Mike Reed Consultant orthopaedic surgeon and chair of NJR editorial committee
