Re: Failed (?) Amstutz Resurfacement

April 1, 2004

Hi

That sounds very painful for you to have gone through........... and a very

disappointing result.

Did anyone suggest at the time that perhaps the way you used your hip needed

to be looked at.........??? for it sounds like as soon as you got one side

replaced the other side promptly took the brunt and wore out .......... I

keep getting the feeling that far too often noone looks at the gait etc of

people having hip hassles to see what contribution that is making to the

early hip wear. i.e. Our life saving OS are so often just wonderful bone

engineers rather than overall body structure interaction mechanics.

I suspect you are going to need to find a surgeon who can put a cup on the

other side that matches the femur implant............ and only OS with some

experience will know about that. As another poster said check with Dr.

DeSmet as a first port of call.

Edith LBHR Dr. L Walter Syd Aust 8/02

> I am truly grateful for having found this group of yours. I live in a

small

> town in Western Washington State and I have yet to find an orthopod who

> knows ANYTHING about resurfacements.

>

> My situation is as follows: I received a Partial Hip Resurfacement from

Dr.

> Amstutz in LA, CA, in 5/99. During the interview he said he was going to

> implant a FULL resurfacement, but apparently decided during the surgery to

> only implant the femoral head. He said that there was plenty of cartlidge

> to last for 7-10 more years (I was 20 years old at the time). Within 1

1/2

> - 2 years the entire socket was ground down, and I've been living w/ metal

> on bone for the past three years.

>

> Orthopod's here in the US keep telling me I just have to grin and bear the

> pain for another 10-20 years, but I am already incapable of full-time

> employment, and even doing some of the most basic " daddy " things for my 5

> year old are out of the question. I cannot run, or even walk quickly,

> muchless walk more than 100m w/out severe pain. I have been compensating

> for so long that my entire gait is out of whack, and I have all sorts of

> muscle spasm issues.

>

> I feel it definitely is time to get the full resurfacement done, so I can

> get back to my life (I was a competitive fencer before my accident and for

> about 1 year after my resurfacement). However, after investigating all

the

> different models now available I'm strongly leaning towards the BHR

> resurfacement. I do not feel comfortable going back to the JRI in LA as I

> felt the follow-up w/ Dr. Amstutz was inadequate.

>

> My question is, what do I have to do as a US citizen to get a

resurfacement

> done in the UK? I have no clue, but I really do want to find out how.

The

> idea of being able to do things like fencing, bicycling, and all the

" daddy "

> things is truly motivating.

>

> Sincerely,

>

April 2, 2004

hi chris-

i am sorry about your situation.

it's gonna be alright once you get

the missing part put in place.

i asked dr. de smet to tell me exactly

which femoral components would be

used in case i needed a revision to

my BHR. he said that they would put

in a modular femoral stem made by

wright medical technologies (i.e. conserve+).

he said that midland med. tech. (the bhr people)

worked with the wright med. tech. people to

create compatible alternative components in

case a revision was needed.

i don't know if this includes the conserve+

femoral cap matching a bhr acetabular cup.

you may want to pose this question directly

to dr. de smet. he may be able to install a

conserve+ acetabular cup for you to insure

a precise fit between the metal parts.

i have heard some hippy-talk mentioning that

dr. de smet and dr. amstutz have worked together

to exchange/study surgical techniques. so, maybe

there is a way to work this out in a way that gets

you the best option....out-of-pocket-cash can work

wonders.

best of luck,

jeff

left de smet in november 2003....haven't looked back.

Failed (?) Amstutz Resurfacement