looking for advice

[jriggs]

I will be having my left hip done in Sept. I saw a doctor yesterday who tried to talk me out of hip resurfacing and into total hip replacement. I'm 50 yrs old ,play hockey,golf and workout 7 days a week At this point I'm just about at bone on bone in my hips, and I see people getting back to a very active life after surgery. Are there any horror stories that are being told about anyone you has had this done? I'm still not sure about this. Thanks for the help

[Pat Walter]

Hi Jriggs

Many doctors will tell you that a THR is better and even some that do hip resurfacing will try to "bait and switch?"  You need a really experienced surgeon to do your hip resurfacing.  Many of the newer ones will only do very easy cases because hip resurfacing is a much more difficult surgery than a thr.

Where do you live?  What surgeon did you see?

You should look at my list and find a surgeon with experience.  http://www.surfacehippy.info/listofdoctors.php

As with any major surgery, there have been a few problems now and then.  The most common are a femur neck fracture or a loose acetabular cup.  Both are due to surgeon error if you read what the doctors have written on my website.  The stats for BHR http://www.surfacehippy.info/bhrhistory.php who the survivor rate since the US doctor have joined the rest of the world to be 96%.  It use to be 99%    That means 4 out of 100 people could have problems and these problems are associated with the new surgeons during their learning curve.  So the best way to keep from having problems is to use a really experienced hip resurfacing surgeon.

I have a few stories about a few of the problems  here http://www.surfacehippy.info/hipresurfacingproblems.php  You can see dislocations, loose cups and metal allergies are some of the problems. 

I personally did not worry about problems because I chose a really experienced surgeons.  When problems happen, the usually happen early on in the doctors hip resurfacing career.  So you should not normally have problems with the experienced surgeons.

You are young at 50 and should want a hip resurfacing.  It is bone conserving so you keep most of your femur bone.  THen in 10, 15 or 20 years, if you need a revision - it will be much easier.  No one can predict if you will need a revision, but even the best THRs usually don't last a full lifetime.

I was 61 when I had my hip resurfacing and felt even I was too young for a thr.

Get input from some experienced hip resurfacing surgeons and they will answer all your questions and you will feel much different about your decision.

Good Luck.

Pat