Anterior Hip Replacement – What is it All About?
As a Fellowship Trained Joint Replacement Surgeon, I am often asked about the latest developments in arthritis surgery. With the advent of minimally invasive techniques in orthopedic surgery there has been a renewed interest in performing hip replacement through the front (anterior) of the hip as opposed to the more traditional posterior, or backside approach. The logic behind anterior hip replacement is to try to minimize muscle damage by separating muscles to gain access to the front of the hip as opposed to releasing and repairing the muscles to gain access to the hip joint form behind. In short, there is no perfect way to deliver implants to the hip joint. If there were, we would all be performing that approach only for hip replacement surgery. Having given you this background, these are the most frequently asked questions encountered in my office:
Is anterior hip replacement a new technique?
No. The anterior hip approach was first described by Smith-Petersen in 1917. It was used by the French surgeon, Robert Judet, in 1947 to perform an isolated femoral head replacement. This later evolved into other French surgeons performing complete hip joint replacements through an anterior exposure in the 1960’s.
