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There are certain joints in your body that, when not working correctly, can have a huge impact on your life — and your hips are definitely on the list. If you’ve got a hip that’s giving you trouble — it’s painful or it isn’t functioning correctly, or both — you want answers and solutions.
Those answers and solutions often come on the heels of a hip arthroscopy, which is the tool of choice when it comes to many hip issues. Each year in the United States, between 75,000 and 100,000 hip arthroscopies are performed, helping thousands of people to get back on their feet and moving confidently again.
At Western Orthopaedics, our resident hip expert, Dr. Brian White, excels in hip preservation and his go-to tool is the hip arthroscopy. Here are a few reasons why.
Before we get into the benefits of hip arthroscopy, let’s first quickly review what this procedure entails. Historically, solving hip issues involved open surgery, with large incisions that allowed the surgeon to get into the joint to make the necessary repairs.
With arthroscopy, Dr. White doesn’t need open access to the hip. Instead, he relies more on technology for a more minimally invasive approach. First, Dr. White is able to visualize the internal structures of the joint using a camera (an arthroscope) that he inserts through a small incision. Once Dr. White has a good visual on his monitor, he inserts tiny tools into the area that he manipulates to do the necessary work and repairs.
Now let’s get to why hip arthroscopy is Dr. White’s preferred tool for hip issues.
Advanced imaging techniques, such as an X-ray or MRI, are great for visualizing the inside of your hip, but the technology isn’t perfect, and many issues can hide from view. With hip arthroscopy, Dr. White can get inside with a camera and get a direct and comprehensive look at your hip to definitively diagnose what’s causing your problems.
Since Dr. White can pinpoint the exact problem with hip arthroscopy, he can also target his treatments in a way that preserves your hip.
By addressing hip issues in more detail through arthroscopy, Dr. White can avoid the broader, and sometimes unnecessary, approach of hip replacement. As the old saying goes, we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. With hip arthroscopy, we can often solve the hip problem without replacing the entire joint.
Since Dr. White is using minimally invasive techniques to restore your hip, you benefit through having less collateral tissue damage. With open surgery, the surgeon needs to make very large incisions that involve muscles and other soft tissues. This collateral damage leads to greater risk of infection, more blood loss, and increased postoperative pain. With hip arthroscopy, we can minimize these surgical side effects.
Here’s a benefit we’re sure you’ll love — you’ll be back on your feet sooner with hip arthroscopy. Since the incisions are smaller and Dr. White keeps collateral damage to a minimum, your recovery time is much less than it would be with open surgery or hip replacement surgery.
If you’d like to learn more about hip arthroscopy and whether it might play a role in your joint health, please contact one of our offices in Arvada or Denver, Colorado, to set up a consultation with Dr. White.
