Super path or minimal invasion op in the uk

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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?

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.