The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued updated advice to surgeons that patients with a particular type of metal-on-metal hip replacement should be monitored annually for the life of the hip replacement.

This updates previous advice from April 2010 that patients with this type of hip replacement need only be monitored for a minimum of five years after their operation.

The updated advice is included in a new MHRA Medical Device Alert that has been issued to clinicians for the management of patients with these hip implants to minimise the risk of having to undergo further surgery to correct complications.

Dr Susanne Ludgate, Clinical Director of the MHRA, said:

“Clinical evidence shows that patients have a small risk of suffering complications from having metal-on-metal hip implants. These implants have in most cases completely transformed the lives of patients who in the past were subject to increasingly severe pain and progressive lack of mobility."

She went on to say that: “By monitoring patients every year, any complications will get picked up earlier and more complex surgery on the patient can be avoided.”