Regaining His Stride
T
Lifelong walker benefi ts from newer hip replacement technique
Vince Gundrum did his homework then underwent his second hip replacement surgery, this time using a newer approach. With less pain and a shorter recovery, he calls the newer surgery “almost miraculous.”
here are two sides to the story of Vince Gundrum’s hip replacements.
T e leſt side and the right side – two surgeries, two years apart, two diff erent procedures. T e happy ending is one 82-year-old glad to be walking to church again.
A lifelong walker who would hike the 30 miles roundtrip from his home in Menomonee Falls to the Holy Hill shrine as a regular pilgrimage, Gundrum was sidelined by arthritic hip joints several years ago.
“T ere was just terrible pain, I couldn’t really walk anymore,” said the retired autoworker.
Surgery in July 2009 to replace his leſt hip gave Gundrum partial relief, but then his right hip kept him from regaining his stride.
T en Gundrum learned about a new procedure, anterior hip replacement, that might reduce the post-operative pain and shorten the time of recovery over the standard approach. Gundrum went to Timothy Morton, MD, Froedtert Health Medical Group orthopaedic surgeon, who confi rmed that Gundrum was an ideal candidate for the anterior hip replacement procedure. He had the surgery last July at Froedtert Health Community Memorial Hospital, and it has returned the spring in his step.
“T e second surgery was almost miraculous compared to the fi rst one,” Gundrum said. “It was like day and night – so much better, with less pain and I recovered fast.”
ANTERIOR APPROACH
“Posterior is the standard approach, which surgeons do about 75 percent of the time,” Dr. Morton said. Surgeons make an incision on the back of the hip, and must cut muscle to access the joint, Dr. Morton explained. Becoming more widely adopted in the past few years, the anterior approach reaches the hip joint from the front.
FEELING FINE SPRING 2012 13
“T e procedure doesn’t involve cutting any muscle, so patients are up and functioning sooner and seem to have less pain,” Dr. Morton said. “T ey can get out of bed and sit much sooner, and oſt en leave the hospital a day earlier. Typically, they come to their follow-up appointment two weeks later without a walking aid.”
■ Timothy Morton, MD
Aſt er his fi rst hip replacement, which Dr. Morton performed, Gundrum took
about six months to recover fully. His second surgery was a completely diff erent story.
“I was cutting grass two months aſt er surgery. It was unbelievable,” he said.
Despite the benefi ts of the anterior approach, it isn’t right for every patient, Dr. Morton explained.
“T e anterior procedure is for patients with a slimmer body and sturdier bones, who do not have a lot of other health issues, and whose hip joint is not severely deformed or arthritic,” Dr. Morton said. “T e anterior approach is a nice option for some patients but it won’t replace the posterior approach, which is more accommodating to more people.”
Determining which procedure is best should be discussed by a doctor and his or her patient, Dr. Morton noted. “T e important thing is that each patient is evaluated individually,” he said.
COMPLETE ORTHOPAEDIC TEAM
No matter which hip replacement procedure surgeons use, it is part of a complete sequence of care at Community Memorial,
COMMUNITY MEMORIAL DESIGNATED AS A BLUE DISTINCTION CENTER FOR KNEE AND HIP REPLACEMENTS
Froedtert Health Community Memorial Hospital is designated by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Wisconsin (Anthem) as a Blue Distinction® Center for Knee and Hip Replacement. Blue Distinction Centers are places of clinical excellence where patients receive high-quality, cost-eff ective health care. Designation as a Blue Distinction Center means the hospital’s overall experience and aggregate data met objective criteria established in collaboration with expert clinicians’ and leading professional organizations’ recommendations.
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