hospitals

[rossplanner]

Does anyone have experience with resurfacings at Mass General Hospital in Boston?

Rossplanner

[siamac]

I live in Boston. I consulted with Dr Dennis Burke at Mass General while I was considering surgery. He misled me about hip resurfacing by telling me about some procedure that was done 20 years ago. He and his colleagues at Mass General, along with the doctors at New England Baptist, which is supposed to be a center of excellence in Orthopedics, are of the old (full replacement) school and are just getting into resurfacing. My advice to you is if at all possible, take a trip to other, more established centers, for example Dr.Mont at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore and do the surgery there. He is outstanding, with many years of experience in his resurfacing. It's an easy trip and the hospital is excellent too. You will not regret it.

[rossplanner]

Thanks for the input.

[siamac]

My pleasure, and do let me know if you need more information. I did my surgery in Baltimore and totally recommend it. Always go for experience!

[rossplanner]

I also saw a surgeon at NE Baptist who was very opposed to resurfacing. Dr. Malchau at Mass General does both resurfacings and replacements and was very encouraging about resurfacing. Perhaps they are beginning to change their attitude. He also ran the Swedish Hip Registry for years. I understand your point about experience and Pat has made the same point to me.

[Bionic]

I'm also in the Boston area.  I saw Dr. Burke in 2005.  He was very negative at that time about hip resurfacing, going so far as to say it had no advantages over THR.  In fairness, this was before the procedure was FDA approved.

I got a note from Burke recently saying that he has been trained by McMinn and Treacy and now performs hip resurfacings "on a fairly regular basis."  He still did not seem very enthusiastic about the operation, and once again warned me about the possible complications.

Personally, I would prefer to go with someone who is more sanguine about the procedure and who does them very routinely.

[siamac]

To me a good and knowledgeable doctor is one who tells me everything that's on the market, and then tells me his opinion about them. Dr Burke actually misled me by not telling me about the "new" procedure, even though it had been on the market for well over 10 years now, and obviously at the time he must have been training for it. This I consider unethical.

I agree, the Boston doctors are generally going to come around to resurfacing, kicking and screaming, but in the meantime, they are very comfotable with total replacement and will continue to push that over resurfacing.