Super path or minimal invasion op in the uk

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**morning. This time last year due to the NHS crisis last winter i had my hip replacement cancelled and for various personal reasons was unable to have it done at all last year.

unfortunately my hip has got so much worse this year and my mother in law has very kindly offered to pay privately and has suggested the new minimal invasion surgery as i was a dancer and would very much like to be able to continue to some lower level. . does anyone have experience of this op and anywhere they could recommend for the op?

thanks

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  • Posted

    HI HEATHER

    YOU ARE VERY LUCKY TO HAVE IT DONE PRIVATELY ITS A WHILE SINCE I USED THE PRIVATE PATIENTS SCHEME, I USED TO USE BUPA BUT IT DEPENDS WHERE YOU LIVE, MY FRIEND GOT HERS DONE PRIVATELY SHE RECOVERED WELL AFTER FIRST OP. SHE HAD SECOND OP ON OTHER HIP AFTER 6 MONTHS AND IS NOT DOING VERY WELL AT ALL! PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND MAKE SURE THEY HAVE A GOOD REPUTATION! BEST OF LUCK

  • Posted

    How kind of your mother in law - you are very fortunate!

    Many surgeons offer minimally invasive in the UK. The difference I think being that they try not to cut through the muscle, but to part it, as much as possible. This usually means a slightly faster recovery. It is still a long recovery though, and it is still major surgery. I had minimally invasive and it was good, but not effortless.

    Google the term and see the nearest surgeons to your county, and then you can start to research their stats, meet them and see how you feel, they can run through it all with you, and also the hospital where you will be having your surgery and their rating etc. You can ask on the forum if you can tell people where you are.

    Best of luck!

    • Posted

      hi im in buckinghamshire and currently under the oxford orthopeadic centre .

    • Posted

      Dear Heather it is your right to ask your GP to request your choice of surgeon and hospital if you live in England and Wales but not Scotland.

      I live on the Isle of Wight and chose the surgeon I wanted for my hip revision in Southampton and my total ankle revision was carried out by a top revision surgeon of my choice in. a World class hospital in the London area all on the NHS. . Talking on the phone may help you best. If you would like to do this please send me a message. Cheers, Richard

  • Posted

    Not sure if minimal invasion op is the same as the super path method but I've had both hips replaced last year using the Superpath method and I'm very happy I chose that method. They use a special technique where they move ligaments etc instead of cut and reattach and they don't need to dislocate the hip to replace it. My scars are 3.5 inches plus a key hole scar which is great in comparison to the standard approach. It's still major surgery and although you'll be out of hospital quicker, it apparently doesn't reduce the overall length of recovery (as you're still getting your leg sawn off!) Good luck whatever you decide.

    • Posted

      apparently it is the same thing? the other problem is i need the other hip done furher down the line and i doubt whether my inlaws will be in a position to pay for that as well so may have to have a traditional op. any thouhts on how that would work having two different kinds of ops?

    • Posted

      Dear Heather to be honest I do not understand what you are expecting to gain from a costly private surgery. It may help us to help you if know as much detail as possible. Cheers Richard

    • Posted

      Jumping the queue is really what you pay for and possibly better food!

    • Posted

      Good point. I've just checked the Southampton hospital website where I had my very successful unstraightforward hip revision surgery and they are showing three months from first appointment to surgery. The surgeon there was top notch in every way and it did not cost me a bean!

      I can walk easily six miles a day at a fast pace and swim the breaststroke for an hour and a half five days a week with absolutely no pain or limitation. Please note that although I can run I only do it in an emergency as I strongly believe that the jarring of the joint can cause premature joint wear and potential loosening of the stem which of course would mean a revision. My primary hip joint lasted me over twenty. years of very demanding work.

      Hope that helps someone. Cheers Richard

    • Posted

      Hi its not about jumping the queue or the food, although that could swing it for me ! I have been seeing my surgeon now for 4 years and if I go ahead on the NHS I would have every confidence in him. Unfortunately he does not perform this new surgery . I have been told by fellow dancers and from what i have read that this new super path proceedure has enabled them to literally get back on their feet and dance. Wayne sleep , craig revel

      horwood and darcey bussel have apparantly had it done at a top london hospital. so for me if i have the chance to be able to dance, even if its at a lower level or a few more years that would be wonderful and i would be eternally grateful to my generous inlaws!

    • Posted

      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

    • Posted

      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.

    • Posted

      what is "lateral posterior" exactly? compared to posterior?

    • Posted

      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?

    • Posted

      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!

    • Posted

      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.

    • Posted

      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.

    • Posted

      No necessarily! My sister went private, having the anterior approach and she had a terrible time. She was only offered paracetamol following her operation, until day 4 when she was given morphine. She had been in horrific pain. I was done 3 weeks before her on the NHS. I was given all the mobility aids I could wish for at home, she wasn't. I was given the special skin wash, nerve pain tablets, morphine, blood thinning injections and laxatives to take home with me as well as the paracetamol and codeine tablets I was already taking. I was a day case, I was back home under 12 hours of entering the hospital. I am having physio for my recovery and have a GP referral to my local gym, my sister was told no physio. She has since arranged private physio, through her partners work as she wants to be fit enough to go hill walking again.

    • Posted

      You are lucky being given mobility aids. I was given crutches and raised loo seats. At my pre op the NHS tried to sell us all the different gadgets, it was rather like watching the sales channel on TV! Everything was expensive and not very good. I went to Amazon.

    • Posted

      Gosh! I only got them on loan. Sent them back in January and have just reordered them today as having my other hip done March 6th!

      Wishing you a speedy recovery!

    • Posted

      The loo seats were on loan but they did not want the crutches back as they said it was too expensive to refurbish them after other people. Cheaper to throw them away.

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