• HRS Overview
• Who Needs Hip Resurfacing
• What is Hip Resurfacing

Testimonials

Who Needs Hip Resurfacing?

Conventional Hip Replacement	Birmingham Hip Resurfacing
Suitable for Elderly Patients	Suitable for Younger Patients
Head of femur (thigh bone) removed	Bone not removed
Articulation is metal with plastic	Articulation is metal with metal
Wears out rapidly in young and active patients	Everlasting' - based on 35 year history in Birmingham of Metal on Metal Articulation
Activity restriction required after surgery for fear of dislocation	Activity restriction not required after surgery as there is hardly any risk of dislocation (can sit on floor ,squat, use Indian toilet ,etc)
Sport not advised as the usage is inversly proportional the life of the hip replacement	Sport and High demand activities encouraged as usage is not related to life of resurfacing implant
Revision surgery invariably necessary in younger patients	Revision surgery not Required for younger patients

 

The outstanding problem in conventional Hip Replacement is the young active patient with an arthritic hip. The problem is worse if the patient is male (higher loosening rates with THR), has an active job and wishes to play sport or engage in physical activity to keep himself healthy.

 

 

 

The most extreme and well known example of this is the American footballer & baseball star Bo Jackson, who had a total hip replacement and returned to sport only for his hip to fail in under one year.

The best results of Hip Replacement in young patients are published from Wrightington in the north of England. This is the centre in which the conventional hip replacement was developed by Sir John Charnley in the early 60's. To this day this centre functions as a centre of excellence in Hip surgery and the institute is named after its founder Sir John.

This graph clearly shows that even in the best of centres Conventional Hip Replacement is not an attractive option in young patients.