Quality of Life Raises with Hip Resurfacing

Quality of Life Raises with Hip Resurfacing

For some reason do Swedish surgeons have a false conviction that we hip patients are dumb and don’t know what we would like to have. Many of us with hip problems have already searched the Internet and found through witness reports that the quality of life raises with hip resurfacing and to a much higher degree than with a standard hip prosthesis. Friends, family and colleagues show that they are not pleased with their conventional prostheses and on the other hand are exited and very pleased after they succeeded getting a hip resurfacing. But sadly the Swedish health care system minimizes the results of hip resurfacing and totally ignores our own wishes in the matter for example our wish to continue with all the activities and sports that we were used to. Before we used to rely blindly on our doctors and the health care system as a whole and we accepted every answer but this has come to an end now. Nowadays we have our own wishes and to a certain degree demands.

The Swedish health care system ignores our worn, problematic and even handicapping hips completely and actively recommends us strongly not to operate the hip but wait as long as we can manage. It is also very common to hear ” You are far too young to receive a hip prosthesis” and many patients are diligently and blindly following this completely wrong recommendation! What we in stead should be recommended is: If you are so young or such an active person and in need of a prosthesis then there is of course the hip resurfacing device that was specifically designed for the group of young or very active people! Age is to start with not a determining factor at all whether or not an operation is called for, it is your situation and the condition of your hip that decides what should be done! To wait or postpone the hip operation while knowing that the hip is in a complete disastrous state is no longer recommended now that hip resurfacing exists and already has proven itself for more than 20 years under more than 400.000 patients world-wide, young and old!

Many of uss no longer accept a conventional prosthesis knowing that our qulaity of life raises with hip resurfacing. To be able and continue life completely normal and without any limitations makes the decision very easy and logic. With the support of statistics over the hip resurfacing specialists results we can even conclude that the probability of never having to replace a hip resurfacing is very large. During 2018 a very large international study on hip resurfacing will be published and give the overwhelming proof of the prosthesis’s superior quality and results in comparison with all other hip prostheses.

With hip resurfacing applied in the way for which it was designed will your suffering before you are operated be much shorter and your quality of life after the operation also be much higher, the principle is shown with the following picture.

What is “Quality of Life?

You can ponder on the meaning of “quality of life”, see for exemple: Hälsan och livskvaliteten and “Statens beredning för medicinsk och social utvärdering” on the subject: “Viktigt men svårt mäta livskvalitet“. “Framtidskommissionen” has a report that shows that quality of life not ony should be based on economical but even emotional aspects: Nya mått på välfärd och livskvalitet i samhället. That our quality of life is an important component for our health is well generally accepted. Studies also show that the quality of life means different things for people of different age and health condition. We people even have a capacity to adept us to life’s changing situations. We find a quality of life even in seemingly tough situations. But I seriously question if it is accetable to abuse our adaptability in the way that the medical care system does when it comes to the selction of prostheses? If our quality of life raises with a hip resurfacing why then do surgeons not give us one and often missinform us? How can surgeons act as if it is normal to chop off an otherwise perfect femoral neck for the placement of a prosthesis? We patients should be given full information and an honest chance so that we can make a choice and select the lifestyle that we want!

Ouality of life, different ages and hip resurfacing

Quality of life is measured by authorities and agencies based on formulas with different aspects for countries in the world. For example see: Livskvaliteten /Quality of life Sweden isn’t always at the absolute top of the list but we are in any case part of those countries that have most satisfied citizens. It is impossible to measure but I am sure that the general quality of life would get a higher figure still if the yearly 18.000 Swedes that now got a traditional hip prosthesis had been given a hip resurfacing in stead. It is no just the other hip prosthesis that is used but even the fact that a patient can be helped much earlier and all the suffering thereby shortened considerably.

There are surgeons and other doctors that treat age as a determining factor in the decision whether or not a person is regarded a candidate for hip resurfacing. In particular the doctors that lack the required experience and fluency in hip resurfacing can incorrectly handle age this way. The real specialists on the other hand will not allow one parameter by itself to determine the result, instead they weigh all the factors presented by the patient. Even an older person can be highly active and free from osteoporosis. So the surgeon has to give it a fair chance and allow time to fully examine each patient’s case and not reject him/her just because of the age! Just teh quality of life, different ages with hip resurfacing was investigated by A.V. PAPAVASILIOU och R.N. VILLAR in a study: Quality of life in different age groups after metal-on-metal hip resurfacing arthroplasty that indicates that age by itself should not be used as determining factor.

Varje ingenjör och person med lite teknisk insikt ser vilka ytersättningsmetodens otroliga fördelar är jämfört med konventionella höftproteser. Det är hög tid att svenska vården också erkänner metodens överlägsna kvaliteter och råder lämpliga patienter i enlighet med detta.

När du har fått tid hos en svensk ortoped för att få tydlighet i dina höftproblem och tala om lösningar är livskvalitet knappast med som ämne. Det verkar som att man helt undviker gå dit och logiskt, eftersom de vet mycket väl att deras konventionella höftprotes har många stora nackdelar. En specialist på ytersättningsmetoden visar däremot mycket gärna att livskvaliteten höjs om man lyckas få en ytersättning i stället för en konventionell höftprotes.

Hälsorelaterad livskvalitet eller Health-Related Quality Of Life (HRQOL) beskrivs av amerikanska Centers for Disease Control and Prevention så här: Livskvalitet koncept från CDC
Jag har bett deltagarna i vårt Nordenhippies forum som redan opererade sig och har fått en eller två ytersättningsproteser att betygsätta livskvaliteten. Det blir en siffra mellan 0-10 för såväl tiden före som efter operationen. Resultatet visas här uppe i tabellen som uppdateras löpande. Kom ihåg att livskvaliten kan påverkas av andra orsaker än bara höften men det är framförallt skillnaden mellan allra lägsta och högsta siffran som visar höftens andel i det hela. Tabellen visar svenska personer som har fått ensidigt eller tvåsidigt en ytersättningsprotes.

Så ta ett nytt tag i ditt ärende och stå på att din situation ombedöms, till exempel med min hjälp. Din livskvalitet återställs i alla fall till det normala om du kan få en ytersättning, se tabellen. För övrigt kommer du livet ut kunna dra nytta av alla andra fördelar som metoden innebär.

Vill du komma till ett av våra möten i Örebro eller kanske diskutera dina frågor med andra i samma situation? Då kan du skapa dig ett fritt Yahoo konto och delta i vårt Nordenshippies forum för att höra om andras erfarenheter.

Likaså får du alltid kontakta mig vid frågor eller för en kostnadsfri bedömning.