"For the most part, when the joint is destroyed, you need to do a form of hip replacement." Doctor Thomas P. Sculco, Surgeon-in-Chief at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, explains several common ways to repair a destroyed hip joint.

Dr. Sculco



For the most part, when the joint is destroyed, you need to do a form of hip replacement.



There a number of procedures we can do for the hip. We can do hip arthroscopy which is a less invasive procedure. The problem is mainly around some of the soft tissue that encompasses the socket. You can deal with those small injuries to that tissue by doing something arthroscopicly with small little scope and windows into the hip. Other procedures we call debridement procedures where we can remove segments of bone sometimes which can be impinging also can be done arthroscopicly, But for the most part, when the joint is destroyed, arthritic, you need to do a form of hip replacement. And there are more than one type of hip replacement. There's the conventional, traditional form of hip replacement surgery. There are some other forms where the ball is somewhat preserved in what's called a surface replacement. A new socketed it put in and a cap is placed onto the ball. It's a procedure that's been done in the past. Our experience with it was not great, it was abandoned. And now there has been a resurgence of interest in it. And we're looking at patients who do have a case for it.