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Arthritis is the world’s leading cause of disability.
Arthritis is the condition where cartilage at the joint surface of
bone wears away. It is this cartilage which normally makes the
bone ends slippery and helps the joint to move smoothly without
friction and also functions as a shock absorber. Since this
cartilage can not be regenerated joints remains painful and at
different stages of arthritis cause a variety of problems like
pain, swelling, inability to walk, deformity and so on.
Arthritis in India is similar to that in any other part of the
world, except that incidence of degenerative arthritis (osteo
arthritis) is more as compared to rheumatoid inflammatory
arthritis. Of greater concern is arthritis especially of the hip
joint in young patients. This could be due to a number of
disorders such as-
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Avascular necrosis of femoral head (where reduced blood
circulation to hip ball leads to arthritis).
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Childhood hip diseases (these causes arthritis in third and fourth
decades of life due to abnormal bio-mechanism).
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Ankylosing spondylitis and Rheumatoid arthritis (these disorders
are problem of immune system of human body and leads to arthritis
in young age).
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Post traumatic arthritis (fracture involving hip ball and socket
leads to arthritis at later date).
These disorders are more debilitating than cancer and cardiac diseases. This
high incidence of hip arthritis is really a major issue for the young patient.
Such a debility will limit the earning capacity. There is a solution however,
and that is hip resurfacing.
Surgery for Hip Joint replacement is indicated in patients who has advanced
stage of arthritis and all the conservative measures have failed to relieve the
pain. In conventional hip replacement hip ball is discarded and replaced with a
plastic socket (cup made of polyethylene) and a metal prosthesis having a small
metal ball inserted in canal of thigh bone (femur). This hip implant is fixed to
the bone with or without cement. As this hip replacement is done in India
commonly on young patient, hence relevance of durability and high percentage of
early failure is a major concern. This less satisfactory survival rate of
conventional hip replacement in young patient is due to loosening of implant
because of polyethylene debris generated between plastic socket and metal ball.
In hip resurfacing only the involved arthritic covering (degenerated cartilage )
of hip ball and socket is replaced with thin metal ball and cup. This means
complete original ball of hip is preserved and only lining is changed. So the
main attraction has been the feeling that the procedure attempted to duplicate
nature and only a little amount of bone had to be removed from the hip joint to
accomplish the resurfacing. In true sense this operation allow complete normal
and natural life style to the patient suffering from hip arthritis. There are
many major advantages of hip resurfacing on conventional hip replacement. They
are
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The ball used in the system is similar to the natural ball and that in turn
confers biomechanical advantages to the hip.
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Improved durability due to hardly any wear out of prosthesis, hence no chance of
loosening.
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Improved functions and quick recovery.
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Patient can sit and squat and even can participate in sports activities.
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Allow normal range of movements of hip.
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Does not change leg length.
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Duplicate or restore normal structure of hip joint and due to bigger size of
ball has hardly any chance of dislocation.
Arthritis Section End
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In India incidence of hip problem in young patients are very high.
This surgery benefit these young patients in term of durability
and improved functions. Implant used are product of modern
technology. The main attraction has been the feeling that the
procedure attempted to duplicate nature and that only a little
amount of bone had to be removed from the hip joint to accomplish
the resurfacing. This operation also differs from conventional hip
replacement surgery is that recovery is very quick, patient can
sit and squat and even can participate in sports activities. So in
true sense this operation allow complete normal and natural life
style to the patient suffering from hip arthritis.
So hip resurfacing is the real solution to the young arthritic hip
where survival rate or durability of hip joint will be very long
and this can be named as ideal hip surgery for young and high
demanding active patient.
Hip Resurfacing Implant X-ray Before Hip
Resurfacing
X-ray After Hip Resurfacing
Hip Resurfacing Section End
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