Orthopedics This Week | February 16, 2016 | Page 13

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ORTHOPEDICS THIS WEEK
VOLUME 12, ISSUE 6 | FEBRUARY 16, 2016

tions). The dislocation rate for the
entire cohort was 0.23%. These
are short term results, so we can’t
comment on functional comparisons of patients down the road.
We can say, however, that using an
anterior approach to hip replacement is safe and has a reasonable
complication rate.”
“Our goal now is to continue to track
these patients out to five to ten years
in order to determine how they are
faring functionally. I’m pleased to be
able to say to my naturally cautious
colleagues, that if they are considering this approach, they can move
forward. My own patients who are
five years postop are doing as well
if not better than those on whom I

used a posterior approach. At this
point in my career, I do 100% of my
total hip patients with an anterior
approach.”
Anterior Approach is Popular
Billie is doing well. She’s home, sleeping well, walking around the house,
dressing, bathing, cooking, cleaning
and writing every day. She’s at the early
stages of her rehab and hurts every day,
but gets better every day too.
She’s delighted that she chose the anterior approach. It was everything she
hoped it would be.
Despite the issues, the anterior
approach is clearly a hot topic and

rising swiftly in popularity among
patients.
But there are issues which every surgeon must attend to if they choose to
learn the anterior approach.
Because there are different surgeons,
different hospital systems and different
patients, there will be, appropriately,
different surgical approaches.
In closing, it is worth repeating Dr. Jay
Lieberman’s answer when asked by The
Wall Street Journal whether the anterior
or the posterior approach was superior: “we don’t know which is the best
approach.”
In other words, it depends. ♦

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