Information on Avascular Necrosis

[Rip]

Hi All,

I'm scheduled for a BHR later this month and had yet another consultation with a surgeon to help me make sure I'm making the right choice.  The one piece of information he gave me which I hadn't yet heard anything about was that he had personally had to fix 4 BHR's recently that failed as a result of avascular necrosis.  According to him, this is because of the placement of the femoral cap (and the way the surgery is performed) substantially reduces the bloodflow to the femur which in turn creates an environment where this condition become more likely..

Does anyone have any information on this particular problem?

Thanks to anyone who can help

-Rip

[Pat Walter]

Hi

Here is Dr. Bose info on AVN  http://www.surfacehippy.info/avn.php   He does lots of AVN cases.  He is a specialist in AVN and hip resurfacing.

He has never had to revision his BHR because of AVN. The is the reason you get a hip resusrfacing with AVN - the bone is removed and the AVN is gone.  It does not return if the surgery is done right and also done at the right time.  There are different stages of AVN and you hip needs to be done at the right time.

When an experienced hip resurfacing surgeon does a hip resurfacing - there is not a long term loss of blood to the femur.  Someone is giving you strange info.  If a doctor is revising hip resurfacings becsue AVN has developed - you need to ask who did the surgeries.  They sound like there were not done properly or at the right time.

What surgeon are you using?  Are they really experienced in hip resurfacing.

Pat

[Rip]

Hi Pat,

Ironically the surgeon who told me about the failure due to AVN was not an experienced resurfacing ortho, but said that he had repaired those done by a surgeon who was experienced, who I had previously consulted with.  I've since forwarded this information off to the resurfacing doc who said that he'd like to follow up with the first..

Needless to say I'd like one of them to come back with some answers for me so the record can be set straight.  Until then, I'm in a holding pattern.

-Rip