Biology and Medicine

Abstract

ACETABULAR COMPONENT INCLINATION AND ANTEVERSION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SUPERCAPSULAR AND POSTEROLATERAL APPROACHES

Armando Bocardo Razaboni, Joao Caio Peres Ribeiro, Tiago Ciffoni Bianchi, Evanil Minussi Filho, Ewerton Alexandre Galdeano, Marcelo Rodrigues da Cunha*, Fabio Lima Ferreira Pessiquelli, Márcio Reginato, Paulo Henrique Minorin Mendes Ramos, Velmor Toesca Baldassim, Raul Marcel Casagrande and Eduardo Gomes Machado

Background: The Supercapsular Percutaneously-Assisted Total Hip (SuperPATH) technique is a muscle-preserving approach to Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA). However, whether the limited surgical exposure inherent to this technique affects acetabular component positioning remains a concern.
Objective: To evaluate the effect of the SuperPATH technique on acetabular component positioning and compare the results with those obtained using the traditional Posterolateral Approach (PLA).
Methods: This retrospective cohort study assessed acetabular component positioning using standardized anteroposterior digital hip radiographs from 86 randomly selected patients equally distributed between the two groups. Radiographic measurements used to calculate acetabular anteversion and inclination were independently obtained by two orthopedic surgeons, and interobserver reliability was assessed using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) with 95% confidence intervals. Differences between the surgical approaches were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U test, with statistical significance set at p<0.05. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM® Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics, version 22.
Results: Interobserver agreement was excellent (ICC>0.9). Mean acetabular inclination was similar between the SuperPATH and PLA groups (38.57 ± 7.15° and 40.76 ± 7.90°, respectively). In contrast, mean anteversion differed significantly between the groups (30.26 ± 5.86° and 25.61 ± 7.56°, respectively). The Mann-Whitney U test showed a significant difference in anteversion between the surgical approaches (U=569.000; p0.05). One dislocation occurred in the PLA group, in a hip with an acetabular component inclination of less than 30°.
Conclusion: Acetabular components implanted using the SuperPATH technique were more anteverted than those implanted using the conventional posterolateral approach, whereas inclination did not differ significantly between the groups. An inclination angle below 30° was present in the only case of dislocation, which occurred in the PLA group.

Published Date: 2026-09-29; Received Date: 2026-08-22