Why can't a hip be Resurfaced a second time?

[Bob E]

Why can't a hip be Resurfaced a second time?

[John C]

Great question. Even surgeons like Dr. Gross who take on very tough cases, do not consider this to be an option. It would be good to hear an explanation on this from one of the docs. Until that happens, I will throw out some thoughts.
1. If a femoral cap does come lose, there is likely some sort of problem that caused it; possibly avascular necrosis or osteolysis. Both of these would not be good indicators for a second attempt  at resurfacing because of lack of healthy bone to attach a new cap to.
2. Since the removed femoral cap would not likely leave a good femoral head surface to work with, the head would have to be reworked down to a smaller size to reveal good healthy bone. This would mean entirely new tooling, and a different internal size for the cap. Currently, I could only see this working if you went from a brand that took off less bone originally, to one that takes off more. For example from a Biomet to a BHR.
I would like to hear from some of the doctors on this one.