Looking for hip or knee replacement at Cleveland Clinic

Dear Jim

Thanks for the lead to the surgeon who has decided that he no longer is prepared to do hip replacements using the anterior approach.   Having read what he has to say along with all the research that I've done over the months he seems to have taken a responsible position.  

It does rather seem that marketing has had a lot of sway in whether one asks for one of the more 'modern' approaches over the traditional and well understood posterior approach.   For me I would not entertain the new alternatives because there are too many potential downsides.   Yes of course one can have problems from any approach but I like to reduce the odds as much as possible even if I may have a slightly longer cut or have to obey the 90 degree rule for a little longer.

Cheers, Richard

Thank you for responding Jim. To answer your question I uses facility because it was the Cleveland Clinic and what's obvious now is that there reviews we're all taken right after a patient surgery before other complications of set in. When I should have put more faith in reviews from Google or healthgrades. This doctor does the anterior version and he does such a huge amount but what he doesn't do is care for the patients afterwards and deal with the problems. No surgery is without problems or risk

Hi Richard. Yes I had the anterior approach and if you read the other hip replacement blogs especially the tendonitis ones you will see the one commonality is there all anterior approach why the posterior approach literally I have not seen many complaints on them, just the anterior approach. I wish I would have known what to research ahead of time

Dear Patientzero

I'm staggered to gather that a surgeon can be paid such a high amount of money for doing hip surgeries with such a poor outcome.  Was this $98K for just one primary hip surgery or the charge made by the clinic and picked up by your insurance provider?

In reading some of the glossy pronouncements on certain web sites about hip replacement surgery, it strikes me that some surgeons/clinics are rather too interested in pressing the concern 'hot buttons' of prospective customers.   Let's remember that profit is a very big driving force especially in US health care or am I being a tad unfair?

I'm very glad that both of my hip surgeons were very down to earth people even if the waiting rooms were rather unexciting places!

As I appreciate that a number of members are interested in size and speed of healing of hip scars, I'm taking the liberty of posting a selfie of my scar at six months taken just minutes ago. It is about nine inches long and this is a close up of it. I challenge others to post their pictures too if they dare. <VBG>  Actually I found it quite hard to do such a picture on one's own.

Cheers  Richard

 

My insurance company paid over $70,000 to surgeon. Payola is payoff from pharmaceutical & medical companies for using their product. $98,000 was from Stryker the joint mfr. Under Obama's medical transparency law.citizens can see if doctors are receiving payoffs.. Im sure it goes on your country you just dont have access to it..i would try and find out. If i had known what i know now i never would have chosen this dr creep

Dear Patientzero

Thanks for the info.   $70K plus is an obscene amount to pay anyone for less than a day's work and will surely bankrupt the provision of medical care in the US.   Even worse when the individual dig a bum job.

You may be correct in suggesting that the same thing goes on in the UK.  Perhaps someone here will be able to comment.

Cheers, Richard

Hello Richard,

Glad to hear from you again, hadn't seen much of you the last week and remember you were looking at ankle revision.  Hope all is going well.  Regarding your observation of medical profiteering in the states, no I don't think you are being overly harsh.  Anyone interested in the subject should look up an article title "The Quantity of Care", from Jan. 2017 in the Seattle Times for an insight into some of the profit driven decisions that are made by the medical industry.  The article focuses on the Cherry Hill campus of Swedish Hospital in Seattle, whose advertising motto is "Quality of Care".  The investigating journalist did a very thorough and deep analysis of actual practice and administration.  The head of surgery, a medical superman by reputation who had taken over the position within the last two years was forced to resign and had his license to practice in WA State rescinded.  The article came out about a week after a close friend had gone in to the same campus for extensive orthopedic surgery to correct her scoliosis.  Because of mistakes made during her two surgeries she spent 4 1/2 months in intensive care also requiring intestinal surgery after her ortho surgery because they nicked her bowel.  Ended up removing a section of colon, installing a feed tube and ostomy line.  We thought we'd lose her, she's still struggling but is at least out of the hospital and making good progress.  Dual and even triple concurrent surgeries where a single surgeon is "overseeing" more than one surgery at a time and allowing fellows and technicians to perform critical tasks were the order of the day and that is something that is often standard practice at many hospitals as well.  The reason is profit.  The guy I'm looking at doing my work specifically points out he does not work that way.  Without condemning associates, the underlying message is that he certainly doesn't condone it either.  Orthopedic surgeons are a small world of very well compensated specialists with highly specialized skills that take long years of study, great talent, high intelligence and tremendous drive to acquire.  It's extraordinarily challenging work, deals with high risks and requires tremendous drive to even attempt such a career.  It's not surprising it often comes with an ego that is equally inflated.  The best I've met have managed to maintain the down to earth humility you mentioned and that perspective sets them apart in my view.  I'd say Richard the vast majority of these surgeons in the States at least are millionaires, generally several times over by the time they reached the maturity of their profession.  I don't hold that against them necessarily especially the ones that do good work but it's a common perspective here that if you go into medicine you are going to be wealthy from doing so.

I'm curious; I've never traveled to the UK.  Are doctors and surgeons usually as well off as their American counterparts or is it more just an upper middle class sort of thing.

Dear Jim

First off thanks for inquiring after my ankle surgery.   It was to have eventually happened on Nov the 6th but a few weeks ago I had a call from my surgeon saying that he dad just returned from a conference in Switzerland where my case had been discussed in conference and as a result he wanted to use a new technique for planning the way the surgery was done.

Because the badly positioned prosthesis is still in place he was not able to plan it as would normally be the situation but using a new method he was able to do this.  The CT scans made a week or two ago are being sent to the US and that should enable them to do whatever is necessary so that the surgery can be far more accurate.   The original prosthesis was badly offset rather than being centrally placed in the tibia so the joint was unevenly loaded which in all probability increased the amount of wear debris being produced leading to my body not being able to cope resulting in osteolysis which destroys bone integrity.  In addition the upper part of the prosthesis was digging into the fibula.   I suspect that the surgeon had to chop into it when he got the prosthesis offset as this shows in the first x rays after the surgery.  He never pointed it out but it is so obvious to me now.   I have attached the X ray and you will see exactly what the issue is!  My apologies to anyone not the slightest bit interested<G>

Thanks for the very interesting post Jim and for pointing us to that article which I will take a look at a bit later on.   Yes I did read your story about your friend.   Totally appalling.  I know that accidents can happen but really!   Perhaps this is going to happen more and more if the tendency is going to be one of having a 'super surgeon' looking after several surgeries going on at the same time.

What happens across the pond has a habit of finding it's way to us over here, both the good and the bad.   Whilst I'm sure that there are many very well off surgeons over here it is not rammed down ones throat but perhaps I've lead a sheltered life to date!

Best wishes, Richard

please let me know if you have founf any other patients who had surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Florida that's what specific forum is looking for. We would appreciate any help you can give we have a very real problem with the surgeons in Florida

Hi Stacy:  I'm in Rancho Mirage and my surgery was performed by Dr. DeSantis at Desert Orthopedic.  Who did yours?

That isnt the Cleveland Clinic...im hoping yours went better than mine.

Hi Stacy. Thank for responding. please keep a notebook of your symptoms. I'm in South Florida so it's a huge senior community and this was the Cleveland Clinic who's supposed to be the tops except that was all the marketing they really have a huge number of problems that they're hiding and they don't do their own revisions other doctors outside do

Hi Janet. How awesome to have someone in this area that is in this group.     It has been very helpful to me. I am in my 4th. Week and can't wait to get this recovery over with.?   I am a real estate agent and book author.  In my sixties  and so wanting to get back to work.  As s matter of fact I just closed two houses this week with the help of another agent and my husband.  but I was  pushing it by sitting at the computer too long and on the phone with buyers. Anyhow in answer to your question I have dr stabile . I went to Palm Springs regional for surgery had my home physical therapy for two weeks and now go to pt by the Palm Springs airport.   When did you have your surgery and how long ago was it. How did it go.   I can't drive yet but when I can maybe we can meet at the river to compare notes?  Awesome

Hi Stacy. I am sorry but you must be on the wrong forum. This forum is dedicated to finding patient who had surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Florida not other places. You can try searching under hip replacement in the main forum

Hi Stacy, My surgery was September 6, so I am about 9 weeks post op.  Doing okay for the most part.  I had previously broken my knee and my foot, so I had a lot of swelling in both, and I suffered a stress fracture of my knee during surgery, so that slowed me down considerably early on.  I think my knee is healed now and I haven't had to use my ice packs for a couple of weeks now, so that is good progress.  My own fault is I do too much - walking without the cane - but I don't know I'm doing too much until the next day when the tissue around the prosthesis gets swollen.  I am working on being patient and using the cane even when I don't feel I need to just to continue building up the muscles and getting back to a normal gait.  I haven't heard of Dr. Stabile - is he with an orthopedic group?  I'm so lucky I like my doctor very much although I agree with you, there hasn't been much in the way of after care.  And they don't harass me too much about not being able to pay my bill since I've been out of work since May when I had my fall.  That won't go on forever though - in fact, my disability ends on December 5 and I am looking at going back to work.  My old job has been eliminated but I found a 3 month temporary job online yesterday, and they seem very interested in me, so I guess that has been my answer to prayers about how I am going to survive financially once my disability ends.  I am interested to see how I do sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day after sitting on my comfy bed all these months, but it's time to get back to living and so it goes.  Hope you're doing better and I look forward to when we can get together for coffee.  My best to you - Janet