DENVER, Colo. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Nearly one in four American adults lives with chronic pain, and for millions, that pain is in the lower limbs — including the hips — making it hard to walk, climb stairs, play sports, or even get through the day. But advances in hip preservation surgery are helping some patients avoid joint replacement, return to the activities they love, and get their lives back.
From the time she could walk … Stella Payne was always in motion. She says, “I’m a dancer.”
She loved to dance. She loved to ski. She lived to be active. Until she says, “I had to stop all of my activities.”
Stella was born with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic disorder that weakens the body’s connective tissue. She says, “There were a lot of hopeless moments.”
By college …
The pain — excruciating!
“I really didn’t think it would go away,” recalls Stella.
Orthopedic Surgeon Doctor Brian White discovered her hip had become severely unstable.
Doctor White says, “You’re constantly trying to hold yourself in a stable position.”
He used a donor graft to create a new labrum … then reshaped the ball of her hip.
“I can make a new ligament between the ball and socket called a ligamentum teres, which functions as a seatbelt to hold the ball in the socket,” Doctor White told Ivanhoe.
And a week later…a second surgery repositioned her shallow hip socket.
Doctor White says, “To actually feel stability when you’ve never had it before is a revelation for these patients
Recovery took months.
“The recovery was brutal, brutal recovery, yeah,” says Stella.
But little by little the life she thought she’d lost started coming back.
Today she’s back on the dance floor, back on the ski slopes, running 5k’s, competing in triathlons, and even leading Blaster, her high school’s donkey mascot, onto the football field.
Stella says, “It’s amazing. I can do anything I want to do.”
While not everyone with hip pain needs surgery, doctors say new hip preservation techniques are helping many patients delay or even avoid hip replacement by treating the problem before severe arthritis develops.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; & Roque Correa, Editor.
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db518.htm
* For More Information, Contact:
Western Orthopaedics
303-321-1333
