HOUSTON, Tex. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The numbers are sky-rocketing. There were more than 300 thousand total hip replacements in 2010, that’s up 135 thousand compared to just ten years earlier. As more and more people need help to relieve the pain, there’s an option that’s becoming popular with patients and surgeons.
Fifty-nine year old, Jill Porter, bench pressed 185 pounds.
“It didn’t look pretty but I was happy to have another world record,” Jill Porter told Ivanhoe.
The whole time, “my hip was killing me,” Porter said.
Four days later she was getting it replaced. Dr. Stefan Kreuzer of Memorial Hermann Hospital recommended she try something new.
“It’s a less invasive approach,” Stefan Kreuzer, MD, associate professor at Memorial Hermann Hospital, told Ivanhoe.
He went through the front of her leg to get to her hip, instead of the more traditional technique of going through the back.
“Fewer muscles are cut during the surgery,” Dr. Kreuzer said.
So many of the muscles we use to stand up, sit down, and walk are not detached. Direct anterior hip replacement can also mean a shorter hospital stay.
Instead of three to ten days, “98-percent of our patients stay one to two days,” Dr. Kreuzer explained.
Recovery time can range from two to eight weeks, compared to twelve weeks with the posterior approach and the risk of dislocation drops too.
Jill’s thrilled the surgery lifted her pain.
“I just can’t even being to say the difference,” Porter said.
Now she’s focused on training and adding to her 39 records.
The doctor says the normal post-operative restrictions on hip movements do not apply to patients who undergo direct anterior hip replacement. He tells us it great for most people in need of a hip replacement, including highly active patients. The doctor is currently training surgeons from around the world on the technique.
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Andrew Mcintosh at amcintosh@ivanhoe.com
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