RE: BHR vs THR - Western Australia

May 15, 2004

I heartily encourage you to stay with this message board -- daily. Read

the stories and ask questions. I, too, was told the very same thing about

hip resurfacing when I first went to a local surgeon. I'd already " heard "

of resurfacing and asked him. Whew! He was more than dismissive of it.

Turns out that he didn't know much. I also encourage you to visit this

site: www.GrossOrtho.com Dr. Gross (US) is the surgeon who did my

procedure. His web site has this fantastic animation of a THR and a

resurfacing. (It's really cool...). Anyway, I had my hip resurfaced in

Feb of this year and I'm doing fine. Do they last?? The data seems good.

The anecdotal evidence is great. Seems to me that the " failures " are not

at all due to the implant, but rather to infection and/or bone

deterioration of one sort or another. I fully expect my implant to last as

long as any THR implant would last. In the meantime, I still have my femur

intact, almost no worries of dislocation, absolutely no joint pain, and --

generally have my life back. If the resurf " fails " then I still have the

option of a THR. If your original THR fails -- well then you're in for

revision surgery and that ain't fun! Others will respond with all of the

technical responses you could hope for. I got out of that local surgeon's

office as fast as I could. Really began to look into resurfacing. And

there was no question about it... I am SO glad I chose the resurf. Bye

the way -- there are folks who post here who are from Australia -- you'll

be hearing from them. Joyce (Dr Gross, Left Hip Resurfaced, 2/2/04)

sungold518@...

BHR vs THR - Western Australia

Hi there, I'm new to the forum and thought I'd run a few questions

past the collective brain's trust to get some current opinions on a

few things. I'm sure these questions have been asked a million time

before, but here they are anyway.

I am a reasonably healthy 36 year old male who lives in Western

Australia and I have advanced OA in both hips. I have lived with

this condition for many years and has got to the stage where

something needs to be done.

I have sought the advice of 2 of the leading orthopoeadic surgeons

in my area who have both advised me against BHR and pushed me

towards the more traditional ceramic THR path. They say the BHR is

an unproven technology and should be approached with extreme

caution. When I have put forward the purported advantages of a BHR,

they warned me to be wary of the marketing of new products and to

approach my 'investigation' in a clinical manner and 'don't believe

everthing you read'.

Everything I've read seems to indicate that the BHR would be the way

to go for me (young, healthy, active), but the experts clearly say

otherwise.

Has anyone of a similar age to me (36), had either a THR or BHR and

what were your opinions and outcomes?

Any recommendations for an Australian, or even better still, a West

Australian surgeon who performs these operations?

Thanks for reading this, any advice would be greatly appreciated as

I am getting more confused by the minute.

Cheers.

May 16, 2004

Hi,

I don't know what is going on over West but over the East Resurfacing is

being done fairly regularly now and good surgeons just do it if the hip

bones left are suitable......... Interesting when these surgeons say proven

THR materials as many now used have about the same time history as a

Resurface...........And there is now much information existing on at least

10 years of Resurface history and 5-6 years in Australia............

It is hard to find problems, failure rates are not high and my Sydney OS

says most of these result from the surgeon having hit the prothesis on too

hard - that can crack the remains of the femur head and requires a revision

to a THR within a year......... It seems if problems of that nature do not

turn up within the year one has a pretty reliable hip replacement until some

time in the future when age or whatever catches up with the femur head

remains......... The Resurface prothesis however encourages the bone to stay

healthy because it is stress loaded in a far more appropriate manner than a

THR........... something someone your age could well consider a

bonus.........

Many younger ones turn up here and have one or 2 hips done........... I

personally know one who lives not far from me who had both hips Resurfaced

in Sydney in the last year.......... Several people have flown from here in

NQ to Sydney to have theirs done.......... only recently did a surgeon from

Cairns start to take it seriously apparently......... and you simply don't

want to be within the first 50 if you can avoid it............ practice

makes perfect with that hammering on and getting the angles right

etc........... Not to say that people within the first few do not end up

with good results.......... just increases your odds............

You can contact the makers of Birmingham Hip Prothesis via the internet and

they will give you a list of surgeons within Perth who do

Resurface........... I am not sure if they will tell you how many they have

done........ You are the 2nd person to turn up in a week from WA asking and

the other guy had talked to 2 doctors who were trained but obviously still

reluctant.............. I have been a member of this board for 2 years now

and it has been facinating watching how OS are reluctantly catching up with

patient demands........i.e. patients take one look at the prothesis and say

that is for me while surgeons appear to be spending their time thinking of

reasons why it will not work......... though there is some thought that this

has to do with them needing to go out of their way for training to use the

device.............

Edith LBHR Dr. L Walter Syd Aust 8/02

> Hi there, I'm new to the forum and thought I'd run a few questions

> past the collective brain's trust to get some current opinions on a

> few things. I'm sure these questions have been asked a million time

> before, but here they are anyway.

>

> I am a reasonably healthy 36 year old male who lives in Western

> Australia and I have advanced OA in both hips. I have lived with

> this condition for many years and has got to the stage where

> something needs to be done.

>

> I have sought the advice of 2 of the leading orthopoeadic surgeons

> in my area who have both advised me against BHR and pushed me

> towards the more traditional ceramic THR path. They say the BHR is

> an unproven technology and should be approached with extreme

> caution. When I have put forward the purported advantages of a BHR,

> they warned me to be wary of the marketing of new products and to

> approach my 'investigation' in a clinical manner and 'don't believe

> everthing you read'.

>

> Everything I've read seems to indicate that the BHR would be the way

> to go for me (young, healthy, active), but the experts clearly say

> otherwise.

>

> Has anyone of a similar age to me (36), had either a THR or BHR and

> what were your opinions and outcomes?

>

> Any recommendations for an Australian, or even better still, a West

> Australian surgeon who performs these operations?

>

> Thanks for reading this, any advice would be greatly appreciated as

> I am getting more confused by the minute.

>

> Cheers.

May 16, 2004