Resurfacing with Perthes disease

[Shorty Mcmillen]

Hello everyone!I am new here, 23 year old active male in good shape.
Experiencing pain and discomfort due to deformed femoral neck and head (mushroom shape), along with short range of motion and leg length discrepancy ( apx 1').
would like to improve my quality of life and to be able to live as pain free as possible .
Would like to read as much opinions as possible and perhaps a referral to an experienced surgeon.   
Thank you community

[einreb]

Hello everyone!I am new here, 23 year old active male in good shape.
Experiencing pain and discomfort due to deformed femoral neck and head (mushroom shape), along with short range of motion and leg length discrepancy ( apx 1').
would like to improve my quality of life and to be able to live as pain free as possible .
Would like to read as much opinions as possible and perhaps a referral to an experienced surgeon.   
Thank you community

I had perthes pretty bad as a kid, braces for years, etc, mushroom shape, etc.  I put up with the pain for a long time to try to just put off the surgery as long as possible.


Late 30's I finally started looking seriously.  I researched a ton and came to the conclusion that I had to go to someone that had experience with perthes.  The surgery is just more difficult since the geometry is just so different.  Several US based GOOD experienced surgeons still hedged their bets on not guaranteeing resorting to a THR once the surgery started.  Bose and Gross were the ones with several perthes cases and felt 100% comfortable committing to resurfacing.


I went with Gross and the results were outstanding.  He commented that my surgery was particularly challenging, but came out great.  One thing to note is that the same mushroom shape that you mention caused my acetabular side to not give enough fixation surface for a normal cup so he used a 'tri-spike' that at least up to my surgery had 0 failures.


There is a cliche response here to go to an experienced surgeon.  Your case is special and you should go to a surgeon that has experience with perthes.  All that being said... 23 is young!  There are no guarantees... but its a pain/life actuarial decision you'll have to make.

[Pat Walter]

Hi Shorty

Welcome to Hip Talk.  I am sorry to hear you are having hip problems at such a young age.

I think, my opinion only, that since you are so young you should only consider the very top hip resurfacing surgeons that have done many thousands.

You are able to email many of the top surgeons and attache your x-rays in a digital format and get free consultations.

Dr. Gross, as the last posted mentioned, is very good and will actually call you on the phone after reading your email.  I think it would be good to get a couple of opinions from the very top surgeons.

Here is a list of the surgeons that have done more than a thousand and it indicates who will give you a free email consult.

http://surfacehippy.info/surgeons-with-1000-hip-resurfacings/

I wish you the best.  Let us know how things are going in the future.

Pat

[ecchastang]

I also had Perthes and had Dr. Gross do a complicated resurfacing almost 3 yrs ago.  Their team is excellent and he has a ton of experience.