Advice for NewHippy&Who knows Dr s?

June 12, 2004

Hi everyone,

I'm 46 yrs old & I've had one year with a rapidly progressing left hip

problem. It turns out to be AVN. Between June-Oct 2003, I saw 3

Ortho-surgeons in the Baltimore area (V.Pelligrini, D. Hungerford &

M.Mont). I was originally told (by the radiologists) that I had AVN,

but all 3 of these surgeons said, no, it's just bone marrow edema but

I do have osteoarthritis (I don't have AVN risk factors). They said

that down the pike I would need my hip replaced, and my level of

tolerance would determine when.

Well, the pain got worse and my Feb MRI shows definately AVN and Dr

Hungerford said that I will need my hip replaced soon. Dr Mont was

annoyed with me because he didn't think I needed that Feb MRI and was

insulted that I got it done. I know he is a great surgeon, but his

impatience with me really turned me off.

I was still planning to have him do my hip resurfacing because I

thought he was the " only show in town " . However, he didn't want to do

it until I was totally miserable. I didn't want to wait that long for

many reasons, the most important of which is that I probably would not

be a resurfacing candidate anymore since when my X-ray looked awful

(1/4 femur collapse), my pain was only bad at night. He felt that it's

better to wait, even if it means getting a regular THR, since I'm not

incapacitated by the pain. Normally I like when docs are

conservative, but this time I'm trying to be proactive.

I learned that Dr s also does resurfacing w/Corin

product, not the product. I went to see him and really liked

him. He's only done 75 of them (DrMont has done about 300) so he is

less experienced, and I can't seem to learn much about him on the web.

He agreed that if I wait much longer (over 1 yr) I definately won't

be a candidate, and for practical reasons, I've scheduled the surgery

for early August.

Does anyone have experience w/Drs? How is Good Samaritan

Hospital? Is the Corin prosthesis just as good as the one?

Thanks for getting back to me!

hipcnm

Recommended Posts