Propriety of asking past hip surgeon for referral to another hip surgeon

[Rosie90]

I have asked my family G.P  for an appointment with Dr. Young, a surgeon in the Toronto area who is well-experienced with hip-resurfacing.
I have an appointment coming up with the surgeon who resurfaced my right hip.  She is no longer doing hip-resurfacing, only hip replacements, which I don't want.  Would she, as a hip surgeon, perhaps be better placed to get me a speedier appointment with another surgeon?  Might there be some personal or professional conflict of interest?  Should I go ahead and ask her for a referral or might I somehow hurt my chances?

[hernanu]

Not sure about this, but if she did resurfacing before, she may be acquainted with someone of good repute who still does. I found that the two surgeons I saw before my real surgeon were very against HR, so I didn't even try.

Talk to her, if she refuses, then you are no worse off. It's important to make a good selection of a surgeon, so pursue whatever avenues seem right. Use the resources here to help you, take a look at the list of surgeons, make sure that the one you choose has significant amount of experience (at least 200 procedures) and is well committed to the surgery as part of his or her practice.

You'll be fine, but most of us seem to have gone through more than one surgeon to find what we needed.

[lycraman]

Rosie,

I suspect that the response from the surgeon will depend on their individual character.  Surgeons who no longer do hip resurfacing will have stopped either because of (a) they no longer believe that it is an appropriate procedure or (b) they recognise that it is very technique dependent and they do not have the amount of experience to build up the expertise required.  If your surgeon is in the first group then they will probably not recommend another surgeon because they do not believe in the technique. If they are in the second group then they will probably recommend the best name that they know who does lots of resurfacing.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Most surgeons I know have skins like rhinos so are difficult to offend (unless you criticise their technique)!
I know that when I was having my procedure 6 weeks ago the other resurfacing patient on the list that morning had come over to the UK from Canada!

[cwg]

Lycraman.. I see you are a recent BHR recipient and wish you 1000% success ~!

[lycraman]

Lycraman.. I see you are a recent BHR recipient and wish you 1000% success ~!

Thanks CWG.  All going very well so far.  Might even have to go back to work! 

[phillwad]

I would ask her - why not?  You have made your mind up that you will not be doing a total hip replacement so you know you will not be having her do the operation - I think her insight would be good.

[Tin Soldier]

I'm with Lycra on this one.  Eventhough, with regards to the group of orthos that don't "believe" in HR, it seems very odd to me that an ortho surgeon who has credentials, is licensed to practice surgery, spent 10 years learning medical science and surgery, probably took a few math classes including stats, doesn't believe in HR.  The stats are right here in front of our faces with the various registries and individual centers like McMinn, Gross, Su, and others.  Also, these data are presented each year at a few of the large international ortho conferences.  I don't get it.   Probably never will.

I don't think there would be a conflict of interest with recommending another surgeon that they have heard good reports on.  I had a well-known arthro ortho look me over and he suggested HR by a well-known local HR surgeon.   

[HippyDogwood]

I was pleasantly surprised in the UK how willing surgeons were to make referrals and ultimately leave the patient to choose. I originally saw a surgeon (dictated to me by medical insurance) who had done some HR's but spent most of the time performing arthos or THR's, generally on younger patients.

When he told me I was beyond artho, he was very quick to offer me a second opinion from the guy he said he would go to if ever in my position (clearly he can't treat himself, so that was quite a 'soft' way of introducing another party). That guy specialised in arthos and THR's but was very anti HR's and turned me down for artho but said he would suggest an HR surgeon if that's what I wanted. I was still a bit stunned at this point so did not take him up but went back to the first guy to see what he thought about HR as an option. He was positive, but admitted it wasn't his specialism and happily referred me to his colleague who has performed 1,000+ HR's

I was like you and felt a bit awkard about constantly seeking further opinions as if I was undermining someone who had been very kind to me. Ultimately I just took the view that this is too important a decision to rush into and get wrong and I think most surgeons will be supportive of you taking as long and getting many opinions as you need to get comfortable. I would also say it is generally better to get referred by a practicing hip surgeon than a GP as the former will have a better understanding of who is worth seeing