Re: Re: How soon can you walk after surgery...?

May 12, 2004

I donâ€™t know about the instructions/advice you were given, but at the hospital

where I had my resurfacing done we were told to do 100% weight bearing on day 1.

I never saw a crutch as they gave us 2 sticks on day 2 and we dropped one stick

the same afternoon. On day 3 we did the stairs (up and down) with one stick

only. I found I could walk on day 3 without any sticks and did the stairs

without it too. I had a snapshot taken with my OS that day without a stick in

my hand â€“ he highly approved of it and was very pleased. The same was true of

another patient of this OS who was operated on the same day as I was. Both, the

other chap and I are 53. The other patientâ€™s hip was in much better shape

than mine prior to the op and he was much fitter than I as well. So, I guess,

it mostly about your OS and how he thinks the patients will recover best. I

believe that Dr DeSmet in Ghent, Belgium has the same approach as my OS â€“ 100%

weight bearing on day one and very few walking aides thereafter.

Dan

* +44 (0)7974 981-407

* +44 (0)20 8501-2573

@ dan.milosevic@...

_____

From: sog1927

Sent: 12 May 2004 03:52

To: surfacehippy

Subject: Re: How soon can you walk after surgery...?

> Steve, Dave, Des, others, perhaps you can help me with this

> one. I have been walking on my crutches like crazy. Probably 4

> miles today. Is this ok as long as it is 50% weight bearing? I

> went to one crutch around the house. I want to do the right thing

> and be patient and I am somewhat willing to play by the rules. I

> don't want to have any set backs but I don't feel like I need the

> crutches. Is there a reason I should stay on them if I don't feel

> like I need them? Thoughts? I am one week post op. Thanks.

,

If I recall correctly, you were an elite athlete. I'm sure the

physical strength and skill that made you an elite athlete are going

to make you recover and regain strength more rapidly than us mere

mortals. It seems to me that the crutches are good for a couple of things:

1) helping to prevent falls, particularly in the early stages of

healing (before there's much bone ingrowth and before the joint

capsule has healed.

2) take enough of your weight that you can maintain a normal gait

(no limping). You don't want to reinforce the habit of an abnormal

gait after you've gone through surgery to get rid of it.

I think before you abandon walking aids this early in the game, you

might want to discuss the situation with Amstutz, just to get his

reading on the situation.

Personally, I can manage about 10 steps before the ol' penguin

walk starts to show up again so I'm sticking (no pun intended) with

the crutches for now (my abductors and external rotators on the left

side just pack it in, but that's still better than even a day or two ago.

Steve (bilateral C+ 4/20/04, Amstutz)

>

> C+ Dr. Amstutz 5/04/04

May 13, 2004

Hi ,

The acetabular side can be a problem..........some here speak of grafts to

make the cup better for fitting etc......... and one of the people I know

with a Resurface ran into trouble with his first op through the

acetabular......... He is obese and the clinic here in Australia that did

his had him up walking on it very early......... While I don't know how many

hours in his case that surgeon gets people up after 4 hrs..............

Apparently the acetabular bit didn't set in properly and he had a lot of

pain for quite a while until they realised it was moving....... They have

now reop and fixed it more firmly.............this time he was restricted

from weight bearing for a bit until they were certain it was well

fixed...........

He is still quite happy with the process and lining up for a 2nd

one..........and this time will not be weight bearing so quickly...........

He had always just been told no way would they put a THR into someone his

size........which is a bit of a catch 22 as it is so hard to exercise and

get weight off with damaged hips......... thus the Resurface proved to be a

wonderful device for him..........

Edith LBHR Dr. Walter Syd Aust 8/02

> My understanding of weight bearing issues has to do with the femoral side

of the resurfacing equation, not the acetabular side. For the most part,

acetabular cups, are all prepared in the same fashion. In fact, we use a

set of acebtabular reamers developed in Europe. When these components are

impacted into the pelvis, they are rock solid. I am not aware of them using

some other proceedure in Europe.

>

> Keep in mind, resurfacing only places a cap on the femoral head. Your

femoral neck bears all the load of your body. That is the potentional weak

spot. The reason for the weight restrictions is to allow the femoral neck

to heal before one over stresses it. Are some of the U.S. docs a bit over

conservative? Maybee, but I personally would listen to my OS and follow the

plan. What's a couple more weeks after all you have been through.

>

May 13, 2004