Change is popularity and availability after BHR withdrawal?

[blinky]

Sitting here waiting for my surgery day, thinking up questions and doing my due diligence.


I have two questions for you:


1) Is resurfacing less popular and/or available since the June withdrawal of the smaller sized BHR device? For women, sure, but for larger men, too? Are fewer larger, younger men seeking it out? Have some doctors dropped it altogether since June?


I ask because in hunting around the internet, I see it listed as an option less often. Some local docs that used to list it no longer do. I am going to have a few face to face meeting with some local guys and ask this too.


2) What do you all think of the claims made by some of the newer THR devices, the ones that are supposed to last forever (the eponymous "Forever" device, for example)? Has anybody met with a surgeon who told him he could run on his THR? Or is that still verboten? Is that still the one thing patients are told not to do? Or is there still a laundry list of don'ts? (Like no deep squats, no kayaking, etc).


I am going to ask that, too, of course. I am not expecting to hear that I can run on a THR. Well, I am expecting to hear that I do so at my own risk.


Thanks!

[Pat Walter]

Hi
I will partially answer your first question based on stats from my own website and experience over the last 10 years.

A few years ago, www.surfacehippy.info  received an average of 1500 unique visitors a day.  Really a lot in the scheme of things since the internet is so large.  My website was listed 3rd on Google for hip resurfacing.

I still work on the website as a full time job and often add new information along with all the new posts on the discussion group.  Now, about 850 unique visitors a day view the website.  I feel all the negative media information has really scared people off. All of the lawsuits for the ASR and other MOM devices are on the TV all the time.  It would make me worry if I were considering a hip replacement. In the Google search for hip resurfacing there are many big websites including the New York Times with their negative articles which put my little website down low on the 2nd page.

In the past almost all surgeons who did not perform hip resurfacing told patients it was not a good choice.  Normally, these were the surgeons who were not up to date on information, tried hip resurfacing and failed, or were not advanced enough to do the surgery.  So the large majority of the medical field did not like hip resurfacing. 

Also hip resurfacing was only less than 10% of hip replacements - in it's prime.  Now much less.  So even the THR device manufactures would bad mouth it to get their surgeons to use THRs.  THRs were an easier surgery and easier to place without as many post op problems.

So poor old hip resurfacing has taken a back seat in the medical arena for a long time.  Now, it seems with all the devices like ASR, Cormet and Wright C Plus being either recalled, or just not available in the US - People see very little positive information about the remaining devices.

I have watched hip resurfacing come full circle in 10 years.  Back in 2005 almost no one knew about it and most people traveled overseas for their surgeries.  Now in 2015 few people know about it since THRs take up all the news and marketing.  Also the big MOM scare, which was basically for THRs, not well placed Hip Resurfacing Devices,  also took the headlines in the media.  People just don't hear much about hip resurfacing and many are now forced to travel long distances in the US or overseas, especially if they are small men and female.

That is the reason I keep working on the website and promoting Hip Resurfacing - tell the world that there is still a great option besides a THR if you are a good candidate.  There are still very experienced hip resurfacing surgeons that have great outcomes for men and women.

You can read about the many positive outcomes for men and women by top, experienced hip resurfacing surgeons here:

http://www.surfacehippy.info/hip-resurfacing-small-men-women-2015.php

Pat

[MattJersey]

According to McMinn's lecture, THR is no more successful.


And THRs impose many restrictions, so resurfacing perhaps a slither of the "under performance" of resurfacing is as a consequence of its patients being very much more active, as the forums here attest.

[blinky]

Pat, fwiw I found this site not through Google but through reading triathlon and running sites. Highly active people who want to stay highly active are still talking about resurfacing. On those sites, THR is not being proposed as a solution. (There is at least one site that does encourage running after a THR, but the whole site is devoted to that.)


But I guess less (fanatical? devoted?) athletes won't necessarily find HR anymore.


MattJersey, you bet I noticed that part of McMinn's video. And at the end of Dr Brooks' first letter he mentions but doesn't elaborate on the fact that if the new NICE standard (95% success at ten years) is applied across the board to hip operations, many THRs won't pass muster. My category of patient, under 55yo women, is the group with the worse results for both operations.


I wonder, though, if the THR surgeon will tell me that the newer devices are better, that in ten years patients like me will have better results. What are surgeons saying now?

[karlos.bell]

 :) Hi Pat, Blinky and others who read this. Good on you Pat, cannot thank you enough for this Web site. Really have not see a better organized 1 out there but there must be other sites. Just reading through some stuff on this web site THR's yep they fail as well  if they are not fitted correctly. Does not matter if they are ceramics etc they still fail or wear if the fitting is poor.
So fitting by a good surgeon is the first step.
Mc Minn also states this as well. Cheers K