Once you and your orthopaedic surgeon decide that hip resurfacing is right for you, the days and weeks leading up to surgery, as well as the day of surgery, require preparation. The following is a description of what you may expect.

Pre-operative Procedure  

You and your orthopaedic surgeon may participate in an initial surgical consultation. This appointment may include pre-operative X-rays, a complete medical and surgical history, physical examination, and a comprehensive list of medications and allergies. During this visit, your orthopaedic surgeon will likely review the procedure and answer any questions.

Surgery  

The surgeon will start the operation with a technique to approach the hip joint. There are several different surgical approaches which can be used and an individual surgeon will choose that which he finds suits his experience the best. There are subtle nuances in each of these approaches and these will result in slight variations with the post operative regimes used in the recovery and rehabilitation from the surgery. This is normal and correct.

The bone preparation part of the operation is carried out using the specialist instruments supplied by Smith & Nephew. The head of the femur is prepared to receive the resurfacing component and the socket is shaped to accept the new resurfacing cup. Once this is accomplished the socket is inserted in a position to give stability to the hip and allow the bone to grow around it encouraging long term security, the resurfacing component is then fixed into position using bone cement.

Following a careful inspection of all components the surgeon will then ‘close’ the surgical approach path and finally the skin with either sutures or metal staples. It is common to have a drainage tube exiting from just below the wound for a day.