Trying to locate a doctor in Indiana

[tonysharp]

Hello
My name is Tony, I'm 42 years old and I live in Indiana. My doctor has informed me I need a total hip replacement and when I asked him about hip resurfacing he told me he did not perform that procedure. I'm trying to locate a doctor within the state that performs hip resurfacing instead of total hip replacement. I've been looking for the last week and still haven't managed to find a doctor. If anyone knows of a doctor or any ideas on how I could locate a doctor in Indiana I would love to hear from you. Thanks for any help anyone can give.

[Pat Walter]

Hi

Welcome to Hip Talk.  I am glad you know about hip resurfacing since you are very young. Very few people get to use a surgeon in their hometown and sometimes home state.  There are only a handful of really experinced hip resurfacing surgeons and it is best to use those.  The odds are that 4% of people that use the less expeinced surgeons will have problems.  So the way to not be a statistic is to use the most expiernced surgeons.

Closest to you would be Dr. Rogerson in WI who is very experinced and has the same rehab as Dr. De Smet in Belgium or Dr. Brooks at the Cleveland Clinic.  Since you are going to have to travel, you might also consider Dr. Gross in SC.  As I mentioned, most of us had to travel since there are few expeirnced hip resurfacing surgeons.

You can look at my list to get the surgeons emails and addresses. http://www.surfacehippy.info/listofdoctors.php Dr. Gross and maybe Dr. Rogerson will give you an email consultation free if you send them an email and attach a copy of  your x-rays in a digital format as a .jpg   Size them at abot 600 pixels wide or long.  Dr. Gross will give you a phone call after a couple weeks.

I hope that helps and you keep learning more about hip resurfacing.  Just because few surgeons perform the surgery does not mean it is not a great solution to hip problems.  There are thousands of us on this site that are happy surface hippies.  Good Luck.

Pat

[Dayton96]

Tony:

Are you asking about Indiana doctors because of your insurance, or because you are uncomfortable about traveling out of state for major surgery?

Mac

[tonysharp]

Thank you so much for responding so quickly. I have no problem going out of state for this surgery Im just wanting to find the best doctor I can to complete the surgery. I have Anthem insurance and out of doctors you mentioned Dr. Gross and Dr. Brooks are in my network. However I was wondering who is suppose to be the best doctor in the United States for this surgery? Thanks Tony

[Dayton96]

Tony:

I'm located in Dayton, Ohio and I have BCBS insurance (Anthem) too.  I started looking for a surgeon to resurface my hip last Spring.  The closest surgeon I was able to find in Ohio or Indiana, who had at least 500 surgeries under his belt and was covered by my insurance, was Dr. Brooks at the Cleveland Clinic.  He is well regarded on this site and the yahoo hippy site.  He does not do distant consultations, so you will have to drive up there and see him.  I also did a consultation with Dr. Gross and Dr. Pritchett (Seattle).  I sent my x-rays by email and then did a telephone consultation.  I ended up going with Dr. Gross for several reasons and only after a lot of thought.  If at all possible, I would encourage you to take your time to pick a doctor and get several opinions.  Based on my research, some of the better U.S. doctors would include Dr. Su (New York), Dr. Gross (SC), Dr. Rogerson (WI), Dr. Brooks (OH), and Dr. Clarke (NY).  There are other less experienced doctors who are also quickly gaining experience and who have received good reviews on this web site and on the yahoo site, such as Dr. Rector (CO).  If I were you, I would start reading some of the old posts on this site (just plug in a doctor's name to get comments by previous patients) or on the surface hippy yahoo site at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/surfacehippy/

There are other factors that need to be taken into account when researching your doctor, as you will discover when you start your reading.  If you search my previous posts on this site, you will read about some of them. 

Good luck with your search,

Mac

[tonysharp]

Mac
Thanks for your advice. I have spoken with Dr. Gross's office and have sent my xrays just this week and I'm anxiously waiting contact from him. If you don't mind how long ago did you have your BHR and how satisfied are you with the results? Thanks Tony

[Dayton96]

Tony:

I'm scheduled for my hip resurface with Dr. Gross in March.  Dr. Gross does not use a BHR.  He uses uncemented Biomet implants.  That means cement is not used in the femoral device, nor the acetabular device. The BHR, on the other hand, uses a cemented femoral component and an uncemented acetabular component.

Check out some of the debates concerning cemented vs. uncemented, that can be found here and on the yahoo site.  I started doing my research almost a year ago and I decided on Dr. Gross and the Biomet.  Others have spent just as much time researching as I have and decided on the BHR.

Dr. Gross will do a cemented femoral component if the patient wants it, but it will be a cemented Biomet, not a BHR.

Mac