Hip Replacement vs Hip Resurfacing – A Comparison:

As we have discussed in our previous article here, not all hip osteoarthritis cases need surgery. Medications, physical therapy coupled with healthy living practices like weight loss can help the patient’s condition. And only when all the non-surgical treatments fail to provide adequate relief, an orthopaedic surgeon recommends hip replacement and hip resurfacing based on the condition of the patient.

But there has always been confusion regarding hip replacement and hip resurfacing procedures among the patients and in this blog here, we aim to help you know the difference in procedures, advantages, disadvantages to help make you aware of the right procedure.

Hip Replacement:

Hip replacement as the name suggests is a procedure where the destabilized hip joint incompletely replaced with an artificial ball and socket implant. The ball portion one top of the thigh bone is replaced and an artificial ball implant is fitted into the bone marrow of the thigh bone. This new ball implant also comes with the socket which now is fitted into the pelvic cavity to form an artificial hip joint that mimics regular hip joint.

Hip Resurfacing: 

Hip resurfacing is an alternative surgical procedure performed by orthopaedic surgeons to treat painful hip conditions inactive and younger patients. Unlike hip replacement where the entire ball and socket is replaced with an artificial hip joint, hip resurfacing deals with a top ball of the thigh bone differently. Instead of removing the ball completely, it is shaved to a suitable shape to fix the metal ball on top of it, the socket attached to the ball is fixed into the pelvic cavity just like the hip replacement procedure.

Advantages of Hip Resurfacing over Hip Replacement:

  • As you might already realize the amount of bone loss in hip resurfacing is much less than hip replacement which is suitable for younger patients.
  • Preserving the bone with hip resurfacing makes it easy for revision hip surgery since younger patients outlive regular hip replacement procedures.
  • By reducing the total amount of metal placed inside the bone marrow and stress distribution happens evenly on the top of the thigh bone.
  • Even stress on the top of the bone makes sure that the hip is more stable and suited for sports and fitness activities of the young.
  • Given younger patients are more tipped towards fitness and sports, hip resurfacing due to the above benefits lasts longer than hip replacement, according to a top orthopaedic doctor in Mumbai, Dr Chirag Patel

Potential Disadvantages of Hip Resurfacing:

  • Unlike Hip replacement, implants available for hip resurfacing is available only in metal, which over time may release metal ions into the body. Though no side effects are identified, ceramics do fare better than metal when it comes to implantation.
  • As the femoral head is shaved to accommodate the metal implant, there is a chance of fracture for the femoral neck in rare cases.

Hip resurfacing is also a more advanced procedure than hip replacement since it calls for far more accuracy and expertise, there are only a handful of orthopaedic surgeons in Mumbai experienced in performing hip resurfacing, and Dr Chirag Patel is one of them. With years of experience under his belt, Dr Chirag Patel is the best orthopaedic surgeon in Mumbai who can help you treat your hip pain with both surgical and non-surgical procedures. You can contact him here: https://www.drpatelchirag.com/