Frankfort Regional Medical Center orthopedic surgeons, Joseph Dobner, MD and Dana Soucy, MD, now offer patients requiring hip replacement surgery a new approach with a specially designed hana® table the hospital recently purchased.
The hana® table is a specially designed surgical table that allows for hyperextension, adduction and external rotation of the hip to an extent not possible with conventional tables. While utilizing the table, orthopedic surgeons are able to replace the hip without detachment of the muscles or tendons from the hip or thigh bones.
Approximately 375,000 Americans undergo hip replacement surgery each year. This number is expected to almost double over the next 25 years due in part to the aging of the population. Most hip replacement surgeries are performed to relieve the pain and disability caused by severe arthritis.
"My goal, as an orthopedic surgeon, is to reduce the debilitating pain from the patient’s arthritis and improve their quality of life,” says Dr. Dobner. “Utilizing the anterior approach with high quality hip replacement implants, our patients should expect a more rapid recovery with fewer restrictions.”
With the anterior approach, a small 4 inch incision is made just below and to the outside of the groin. Two muscles are then pushed aside, giving orthopedic surgeons access to the hip socket to perform the replacement. No muscles at any time during the procedure are split or detached. For the patient, that results in a faster recovery, less pain, smaller incision, less blood loss and less scarring.
Patients receiving anterior hip replacement experience none of the precautions related to traditional hip replacement, including no post-operative dislocation precautions, no restriction of post- operative activity, immediate use of normal toilet height, no post-operative abduction pillow (between the knees) required, cross legs as desired, and no shoe lift requirements.
The rehabilitation process is much faster with the anterior approach compared to the traditional posterior approach because the muscles are not traumatized during the anterior approach to the hip. Patients are able to get up and walk with the use of a walker much easier and most progress to a cane within two to three weeks. Most patients are walking independently without the use of a cane with four to five weeks and are able to return to their normal activities shortly thereafter, which is about twice as fast as the traditional posterior approach.
Both Dr. Dobner and Dr. Soucy see patients for hip and other orthopedic conditions at their office in Frankfort.
For more information about anterior hip replacement surgery at Frankfort Regional Medical Center, or to schedule a consultation, please call (877) FRMC-MD1 ((877) 376-2631).