Greater prevalence of wound complications requiring reoperation with direct anterior approach total hip arthroplasty

The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare wound complication rates between primary THAs performed via a posterior or direct anterior approach. From our prospective outcomes registry, we identified 1288 primary THAs performed via a posterior approach and 505 via a direct anterior approach. The direct anterior approach resulted in a significantly greater number of wound complications that required reoperation than the posterior approach (7/505 (1.4%) vs. 3/1,288 (0.2%), P = 0.007). As such, patients should be counseled on the potential increased risk of early wound complications with the direct anterior approach, and future research is needed to determine if alternative closure techniques can reduce the risk of wound complication.