Is Hip Resurfacing Like Knee Arthroscopy?

[Texas]

Crazy question I hope not, is hip resurfacing, like a athoscopy misspelled (scope) for the knee?

 

[Jamie]

Kim, I moved your question it its own thread. I think you'll get more discussion this way.

Jo will have to provide details, but I do not thinks these two surgeries are at all alike.

Arthroscopy is usually an outpatient procedure done with three small holes in your knee. It is usually done to "clean up" loose particles, smooth surfaces, or make minor repairs to the knee.

In a hip resurfacing, there is actually a device implanted and, although it is my understanding that it can be "minimally invasive," the opening(s) are not small holes like in arthroscopy. I think it requires a hospital stay and period of recovery afterwards.

 

[Scott]

Two totally different things in my understanding. Jamie described an arthroscopy perfectly. These can also be performed on a hip but according to my OS it is more of a specialty than resurfacing and replacements. There are a few surgeons in the US that do the majority of these operations.

Had a good amount of my cartilage not already been damaged I could've possibly found good relief with just an arthroscopy, because some of the cause of my problems was extra bone growth from the original break. An arthroscopy could've cleaned that up and cleared the impingement.

A hip resurfacing is very similar to a replacement except the femoral neck is saved. You still get cut the same, get a new socket and a new head. The old head is shaved down and smoothed, then a spike is inserted into the neck (vs the femur) with the new head attached.

Your femoral neck has to be in a good, strong condition to be a candidate for a resurfacing, because one of the bigger risks with a resurfacing is the neck breaking then a total will have to be done.

I wanted a resurfacing, primarily because it is said to be better for younger and very active people. Unfortunately my leg was around 3/4 inch shorter than my non-op leg and the OS couldn't lengthen the leg that much with a resurfacing.

Here is a short article that talks about it. broken link removed: https://www.ucsfhealth.org/common/pubs/ortho/spring2008/hip-resurfacing/index.html

 

[Josephine]

One is a major operation, the other is an examination of a joint using a small telescope about the size of a pencil with a camera on it.