How to Choose a Hip Resurfacing Surgeon

[Pat Walter]

You will often read that I and other members recommend that you use the really experienced hip resurfacing surgeons.  There have been published medical studies to indicate there is a steep learning curve for hip resurfacing surgeons.  The really experienced hip resurfacing surgeons all had a few revisions in their early surgeries. Most of them were doing hip resurfacing before there was as much formal training like there is now.  They had to do more experimenting to learn how to get the job done properly.  There was less instrumentation to help surgeons place hip resurfacing devices than existed for THRs.

All doctors have to learn to do hip resurfacing.  It is a much more difficult surgery than a THR.  Some doctors can learn after doing 20 surgeries and other might take 200 surgeries.  Some decide that hip resurfacing is just not for them and prefer to do THRs so the patient has a good outcome.

The overall survivorship rate of the BHR is about 96%. That varies for each National Registry Report. 

http://surfacehippy.info/category/hip-resurfacing/national-registries/ 

Each of the individual surgeons often have their statistics published.

https://surfacehippy.info/hip-resurfacing-doctors-over-1000-hip-resurfacing-surgeries/

https://surfacehippy.info/hip-resurfacing-doctors/

It makes common sense that it takes time to learn to do a complicated surgery consistently.  I have heard the more experienced surgeons  say this. Some mention this in their videos 

https://surfacehippy.info/category/hip-resurfacing-doctor-information-2/hip-resurfacing-doctor-interviews/

In an effort to help people have good outcomes from their Hip Resurfacing Surgeries, we often tend to suggest the most experienced surgeons.  There is usually little chance of serious post op problems.  Many people can't, however, always go to these surgeons.  Also if we only had a small handful of surgeons performing hip resurfacing, we would all wait years to get our surgeries done. Some people have to go to the doctors that are in their insurance plans which often include many of the newer surgeons. Some people just can't travel far distances or just don't want to travel to go to the more experienced surgeons.  We are all different in our feelings and opinions.

Therefore, many people successfully use the newer surgeons.  Most have successful surgeries and recoveries.  Even if the odds say 4 out of 100 will have a revision, that is still pretty good odds.  That means 96 people will have successful surgeries. 

There are many discussions about doctors' surgical approaches, hip capsule preservation, best type of hip resurfacing devices and the cement/cementless issue. Many doctors have different post op protocols where some let you be 100% weight bearing immediately, others make you partial weight bearing for six weeks. Some keep you on walkers while others allow you to use one crutch or a cane post op.  No one can say what is best for each individual person. No one can say what is the best approach for each surgeon to perform successful surgeries.  Many of us had an experience with our doctor and we feel it was the best, so we want to share that with everyone.  We want to see everyone have an easy surgery with a quick recovery.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the same experience.  That may be due to our individual bodies, problems before surgery and our doctor's techniques.  It is difficult to separate the individual problems in such a complex situation and know why we all differ so much. 

Therefore, we each have to read, talk to the doctor and make our own decisions.  It is good to know others experiences, but each person has to feel good about their doctor.  They need to have faith that they have chosen the best doctor which in turn makes all the important surgical decisions for them.  Sometimes people choose the experienced surgeons and sometimes they choose the newer doctors.  We all have to respect each person's decision. People need to decide what is most important to them and choose the doctor feel will do the best for them. 

PS.  I wanted to comment on this because we sometimes get carried away with our own experiences and don't understand how other people feel.  We should always support each other in our choice of doctors.