doctor experience

[htj]

I am scheduled for resurfacing of my left hip in March.....both need it but I am opting to go one at a time.  I am very comfortable with my doctor selection, and although he has thousands of thr under his belt, he only has 55-60 bhr completed thus far.  His record is excellent....should I be concerned with that level of experience?
Thanks, htj

[Pat Walter]

Hi HTJ

I would make one suggestion to you.  Why not rename your post with your doctors name and let people know who you are considering.  That way if they have used him/her, they can tell you about their experience.

Not knowing where you live or who you are going to makes it difficult to comment on.

Most of us surface hippies from the older days, still suggest using surgeons with lots of experience.  I was a female that was 61 and had a loss of bone density.  I needed an experienced surgeon and used Dr. De Smet of Belgium that has done over 3000 hip resurfacings.

The studies on my website and my article http://www.surfacehippy.info/pcselectingsurgeon.php  tells you why I make the suggestion to use an experienced surgeon.

The revision rate for the BHR has dropped from 99% to 96.1% http://www.surfacehippy.info/bhrhistory.php   The most current statistics available.  The drop occured when all the new US surgeons jumped on the hip resurfacing bandwagon.  Someone has to be the 4% statistic of revisions.  The problems occure early in a doctors learning experienece -ususally during the first 100-200 resurfacings.  So if you aren't a gambler and want to make sure you don't have a revision from a loose acetabular cup, femur neck fracture or infection - I always suggest looking for the experineced surgeon.

If you are a gambling person, you can assume you just won't be one of the 4 out of the 100 that will have to go back and have surgeyr again for a THR revision. It is as simple as that.

How much are you willing to gamble?  It is not opinion - it is statistics.

I did not want to gamble at all.  Many peole are willing to gamble. You have to determine what your gut feeling is telling you.  If you have no nagging questions about using your doctor - go for it.  If you have questions - which obviously you do or you would not have posted here, maybe you need to look further for a more expernienced doctor.

The other problem with the less experineced doctors is they often will give you a THR if the surgery is difficult. THey are not experienced enough to go with a BHR. So you need to find out how sure the doctor is that you will get a BHR.  My doctor told me 100% chance I will get a BHR.

It is heartbreaking to read the news that someone needs a revision and must face major surgery once again.

Good Luck and keep in touch.

Pat

[Ronnie]

Hi HTJ
         I can only tell u of my experiance. I am in White Plains ny and went to a DR. given by my PT. Thought i was going to get exrays to see if i needed a thr but after 2 years of pain he said i was prime for a BHR. I read this great web sight and asked DR zelicof's PA. how many he had done and he said 50 or 60. concerned, a month latter i asked the Doc himself and he said he had a least 100 under his belt.I felt very good with him and so far 9 weeks latter so good.When waiting in a busey office i talked to a lot of other people who were operated on.
                       ASk questions Ronnie