SUMMARY
Dislocation following total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a complication with reported incidence rates varying from 0.5% to 10.6%. Placement of an abduction pillow is a precautionary measure undertaken to help prevent acute hip dislocation. Our primary aim is to compare the rates of acute hip dislocation between THA patients who received a post-operative hip abduction pillow and those who did not.This is a retrospective single-center, multi-surgeon case-series of patients who underwent primary THA between June 1, 2014, and June 01, 2018 at our National Orthopaedic Hospital. Exclusion criteria included revision surgery, conversion surgeries. Dislocation rates were compared between the 2 groups: reported as relative risk (RR) estimates.1154 patients received hip abduction pillows following THA compared to 1296 patients who did not. 2 patients suffered an acute hip dislocation in the former group compared to one patient in the latter.The relative risk of suffering an acute hip dislocation was 2.25 times higher if the hip abduction pillow was utilized. Removal of the hip abduction pillow following primary total hip arthroplasty does not increase the risk of in-hospital acute hip dislocation, regardless of approach used.