Hip Resurfacing Story about...

Hip resurfacing

 

Updated: 8/11/2007 5:00:00 AM By: Diana Palotas

 

The pain in Joe Mitchell's right leg bugged him for years. It hurt more after he worked out.

 

Mitchell said, "I had all different kinds of therapies thinking it was muscular, when in the end it had nothing to do with that at all."

 

His chiropractor discovered it wasn't Mitchell's leg that was the problem -- it was his hip. And it was filled with arthritis.

 

At just 54, Mitchell was too young for a hip replacement.

 

He said, "The younger you are, the more they don't want to do the first one. So I was in that waiting period."

 

Mitchell didn't have to wait long. The Food and Drug Administration just approved a new procedure called hip resurfacing. It buys active baby boomers with worn-out hip joints another ten years or more before replacement.

 

Dr. Christopher Drinkwater of University of Rochester Medical Center said, "In the case of resurfacing, we just mill the femoral head and put a metal cap over the femoral head."

 

It's anchored by bone cement, held by muscle and ligament tension. A total hip replacement removes the femoral head and neck. Then a stem is placed in the canal of the femur which holds an artificial ball. Hip resurfacing preserves the bone in this area, so a future hip replacement can be done if needed.

 

Not everyone is a candidate for hip resurfacing because of concerns over bone density. Men, like Mitchell, need to be 65 and younger, women 55 and younger.

 

Like hip replacement, hip resurfacing is major surgery.

 

Attorney Joe Mitchell was back to work in six weeks.

 

He said, "It's just nice knowing something was wrong and now it's fixed. It's a nice feeling."

 

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