Superpath is just a variation of a so called minimal invasive hip replacement surgery and is certainly not a magic bullet.
I would advise caution where any surgeon tempts you with. wonderful claims. It is YOUR BODY and it is YOU who will have to deal with the situation if the outcome is not as great as you were led to expect. That is the reality.
Cheers,Richard
I know that Darcy Bussell had resurfacing surgery not a full replacement. I don't think that is what you want. Also I am pretty certain that Wayne Sleep did not have super path. Are you sure your friends are talking about super path not anterior which is also called minimally invasive? I had lateral posterior mainly because I was worried about the possibility of permanent nerve damage which can happen with the minimally invasive techniques. The really important thing is to get a good surgeon. All techniques can have problems, it is a fairly brutal operation. You could always go for the operation you want first time round and see how it goes. All operations are pretty good nowadays and you should be dancing after any of them.
I know it is available in Bournemouth besides Leeds plus the Royal Orthopaedic at Stanmore and hopefully should be available everywhere at some point. I think they cost around £200,000. It does make the surgeon's hand much more accurate. It must be really good for a less experienced surgeon. I discovered you can also see your op on a screen which appealed to me. There is also a new hip that is supposed to be good for athletes that is supposed to guarantee no hip dislocation.
what is "lateral posterior" exactly? compared to posterior?
Hi, its all to to with precision in placing the new joint. theres podcasts by jon conroy on the nuffield website. definately not used by less experienced surgeons as suggested by others! would wholeheartedly recommend people to research! x
to be honest not entirely sure as their op was done in states. it really is a mindfield. But what ever op it was she was walking unaided by 4 weeks also a friend of theirs who is also a surgeon (vascular) had same op and he was back to work un aided at a month as well. The nuffield where i have made my initial enquiries have told me the two ops are the same thing? what is lateral posterior?
Having watched the video it seems clear that this is an aid to help a surgeon line things up but that the outcome is still very dependent on a skilled surgeon.
A hip replacement is large scale surgery unlike for example ankle replacement surgery so I do not really see it as being a make or break must have aid. Hip replacement surgery generally has a very good record of success when carried out by an experienced surgeon so that to me is the key to a successful outcome. Cheers, Richard
Heather, from my own personal experience and repeated by others on this forum my first hip replacement of twenty-two years ago as a fit and active fifty-five year old I walked out of a local Welsh hospital needen walking stick for support and that got tossed within in day or so.
I was walking a couple of miles a day on rocky rural tracks and was back looking after my flock of sheep within a week and. other work. I had an experienced surgeon and I was fit and not overweight. My revision twenty years later was just as successful and both were carried out using the well tried posterior method.
I've also had two total ankle replacements but that surgery unlike hip replacements is very technically challenging for the surgeon and the recovery is very challenging for the patient! Cheers, RichardPS if we met or you saw me walking you would not have any idea that I have a replacement hip and ankle joint!
I've had two posterior Superpath hip replacements and they use the method of moving ligaments etc and no cutting with that. It is a very specialised method but it is done posteriorly.
I am not sure, that is what the surgeon called it, I think it is a bit further forward and I did not lie on my stomach but on my side.
I am not sure what lateral posterior is, that is what the surgeon called it. I think it is just a modernised posterior. He seems to be a workaholic and does twice as many hips as the average. His bedside manner has something to be desired though. I went home and stopped using crutches the minute I went in the door, I was rubbish with them anyway. I did not use any aid in the house at all, but a stick for security when outside. I found if I use a stick I can use the disabled changing rooms at the swimming pool with no one questioning me, which are much nicer than the normal ones. I went out to lunch the day after I came home although that was not a particularly good idea as I was very tired. Encouraged by my sister, who assumed I would be back to normal in four days. I actually did go back to work pretty well as soon as I got home but I was working from home so perhaps that does not count. I did take two important outside meetings two and a half weeks after the op though. I was worried silly about going home, going up the steps to my house and not being able to sleep in my bed upstairs. In the end I had no trouble. I had a bit of material to help me lift my operated leg into bed, some days I needed it and other days I didn't. I think the important thing on healing is to be super fit before the op, of course this can be difficult as you can be in a lot of pain. Also a high protein diet for healing is a good idea.
It seems the advantage is that the robot nudges the surgeon's hand for more accuracy if it is a bit off, as the robot also holds a scalpel. I believe we will have a lot more robots in the future. I think we will have the situation where a surgeon can be in one country and operate on someone in another country. I understand that the hip op is actually a bit slower with a robot. I also think AI will take over from GPs in the future.
Thanks for you input, welcome ad usual! You may well be right about the future but given an experienced surgeon I would far prefer to rely on their skill in real time that a robot that relies on a range of parameters that have been uploaded for a relatively straight forward procedure like a total hip replacement.
In the case of my recent total ankle replacement revision, computer modeling was carried out in the US and on the basis of this I was marked up and measured up by my surgeon and modifications made to the prosthesis a few weeks before the six hour surgery. The surgery has been an outstanding success and this strikes me as being an excellent use of computers in surgical procedures. Cheers, Richard
I probably would not mind having a surgeon helping the robot! I am sure it will happen though. When you hear of some of the errors made on this forum even, it should be good news. Once the robot has got it right it will not forget things. I have seen the Da Vinci robot, where the surgeon sits a distance from the patient. Apparently one problem with robots is that the surgeon can't actually feel what they are working with, which is quite important for some ops, but I think they have even addressed that. I think for a robot to do a hip op with a surgeon's help would be pretty complex, looks like orthopods are not redundant yet.
Is the robotic system only available for posterior hip ops at the moment? I assume as time goes by it will improve on everything.
buckinghamshire
thankyou i would appreciate his name
i had the posterior approach, not sure if robotics is available for the other approaches. It is only used by the more highly skilled surgeons at the moment. surgeon operates the robotic arm. wound was glued rather than clips and my surgeon used a dressing that was clear which wasn removed, it was waterproof so I could shower straight away and the dressing dissolved over about 3 to 4 weeks. can hardly see the scar.
Hi Heather, he is called William Bartlett. There's plenty about him on line. On his total joint website there are little clips of his patients after their ops. At the Whittington hospital, where he works for the NHS, he leads the enhanced recovery programme, where you're up on your feet just a few hours post op. I would imagine it's the same with his private work.
I had a spinal and no sedation and at the end of the op the surgeon asked if I wanted the dissolvable stitches or clips, I hadn't a clue but said dissolvable! One person in my ward had clips and when they were removing them bits of flesh came off with them!! I had a waterproof dressing and was able to shower in hospital which was fantastic. I found at home I was able stand in the shower with no seat which was good too, I sort of leant against the glass side. I had oral anti coagulants rather than having to inject which was quite a relief.