With the new intervention techniques and the new performing materials, you can return to sports even immediately after the intervention.
The hip prosthesis intervention is one of the most performed all over the world. It is indicated above all in cases of arthrosis, fractures and degenerative diseases which can strongly compromise the quality of life and mobility, especially in the elderly. The Italian Artroprotesi Register (Riap) of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità testifies that in Italy about 100,000 hip prosthesis interventions are carried out every year, with an average age of patients who are around 70 years and a constant growth trend in recent years. Though thanks to New surgical techniques And new more resistant materials (such as titanium, ceramic, highly cross-linkate polyethylene) the number of younger patients is growing. In Europe, Germany is the country with the highest absolute number of interventions, followed by France and Italy. The increase in these interventions is not linked only to the aging of the population, but also to the expansion of surgical indications.
Advantages of mini invasive surgery
In the traditional approach, the hip prosthesis intervention is performed through a large incision – at 20 and 30 cm – with an important detachment of the muscles and with an operation called “major surgery” which exposes to risk of bleeding and general anesthesia that can also be long enough. All this, especially in the elderly, can cause post -intervention recoveries that often prove to be complex. Mini invasive surgery, however, especially that which takes place through direct front access, allows you to reach the hip between the muscle bundles, without the need to cut muscles or tendons. This translates into many benefits. In Italy, we are at the forefront also in this technique. “” The micro-invasive intervention brings the patient a whole series of advantages “explains Dr. Augusto Dagnino, head of the Orthopedics I of the IRCCS Policlinico San Donato. “These range from very fast recovery to greater post -operative well -being. In fact, we intervene on the bone but we do not go to cut the musculature, so patients have minor bleeding, less pain And since they do not lose musculature can return to do everything they did before. Even the sporting activity: and this for younger patients is obviously a great bonus ».
The intervention, in fact, is increasingly widespread also by virtue of the great spread of sports such as the Padel, the race and the tenniswhich can accelerate the hip wear and bring patients to the operating table at an increasingly early age. The mini invasive approach must certainly be privileged in super young and large elderly people. «It is however suitable for all those who are affected by arthrosis and have done all non -surgical therapies such as infiltrations, rehabilitation, gymnastics»Continues Dagnino. «If these approaches do not work or in any case they are no longer sufficient to guarantee good quality of life, you get to a point where you need to plan an intervention. First, especially in young people, we tended to procrastine him because having the prostheses an “expiry date” that was around 20 years old We feared patients too early And then then to risk, during life, to have to re-work them perhaps two more times. Now with the new materials and new techniques we are no longer afraid to operate super young ».
Eye to the alarm bells
But how do you notice if we have something that does not go to the hip level and avoid underestimating symptoms or to exchange them for other problems such as sciatalgias or pubalgias? «The alarm bells are the pain in the inguinal areato be better understood about halfway through the elastic of the briefs “concludes Dagnino” or even on the side, along the seam of the pants. Pain is almost never perceived in the buttock area. You need to be careful even when you can no longer perform very simple operations like Lay the shotsEo put the socks, or even cut your nails of the feet, especially if it happens only on the one hand. In that case, you must immediately think about an hip problem “
