Hi,
My husband is 45 y/o and needs a hip resurfacing procedure. He had a hip scope for labral tear in March and the dr found NO cartilage behind the labrum.
Hi:
Eerily, I'm in almost the exact same position as your husband: active 45 yrs. old, had a hip scope last October for torn labrum, found a lesion down to the bone under the tear, and it all came from "malformed" congential hip problem. And I've seen Dr. Su....
[I've also explored a number of other avenues (e.g., related to the malformed hip), so send a private message, if you'd like to talk off-line.]
I've been pursuing the strategy of trying to buy a few years through increasing strength around the hip and lumbar areas. I'm going to give this till March of next year, then probably get resurfacing with Su, if I"m still having trouble. If you can find a "hip smart" PT, this can be a big help--I found one who has worked with a former Su patient (from this board) in my area, and he knew exactly what the issues were.
From my perspective, the advantage of holding out a few years is to get more data on new devices--especially the Conserve Plus with A Class metals, which "gives off" less metal ions than the Birmingham. Dr. Su pushes for the Birmingham, reasoning (correctly) that it's tried and true, but he will use the Conserve Plus on request. The other "hope" for holding out, is that if I can turn holding out 3 years into 6 years without major lifestyle changes, then there are two developments of interest that may come online: Ceramic resurfacing, or artificial cartilidge repair.
Since all things being equal, I'd prefer not to cope with metal ions, personally I'd be up for being one of the early adopters of a ceramic resurfacing device. And the surgeon who did my hip scope (Dr. Joseph McCarthy) is currently finishing up animal trials on artifical cartilidge repair.
Note that it sounds like your husband is like me in that he has a specific lesion in his acetabulum--this is a quite different situation than a lot of people who have generalized arthritis. For me, the implications are that impact sports (e.g., tennis) aren't necessarily a problem (femur just impacts my healthy cartilidge, it's more that certain motions (e.g., internal rotation) are problematic. So, if I were your husband I'd take the restrictions he was given with a grain of salt and try it out for himself.
Finally, to support the "holding out" strategy, I found visco-supplementation (FDA approved for the knee, but not hip) to be of some help (downside is a lot of radiation from flouro guided injections).
Best,
Jon