“I was so glad I brought this up and felt so relieved going into my second surgery…”
At the age of 22, Daniel Hall felt as if his joints were 15 years ahead of him. Daniel is an extremely active individual and a weekend warrior. He is an avid runner and tennis player who began to feel constant pain
in his hips in his early 20’s.
“I was having trouble going on runs,” said Hall, “I knew I needed to look into it.”
He went to see an orthopedic surgeon and was diagnosed with Femoroacetabaular Impingement and a torn labrum in both hips. Daniel tried doing physical therapy, which would help, but ultimately would always plateau.
He decided to go through with the hip arthroscopy. He had what seemed to be a very successful procedure. The surgeon went in and repaired his torn labrum and had no issues during the procedure.
A couple of days after surgery, Daniel noticed an acute pain in his groin area. He had broken skin and bruising, “It was so painful that it made me not even notice my hip pain,” said Daniel.
Due to the nature of the location Daniel did not feel comfortable addressing this with his surgeon. He talked it over with some family members and a friend who is in the medical field, who brought to his attention
it was most likely due to the procedure being performed with a table using a post in his groin. This post is commonly used in hip arthroscopy procedures to pull apart the joint space and enable the surgeon to
complete the procedure, but in turn translates 50-120lbs of force onto the groin area.
It soon came time to perform the arthroscopy on his other hip. Daniel knew he had to mention the complications he experienced with his first procedure and get some answers. His surgeon confirmed this was likely due to the table with a post and immediately
brought up a solution, the Pivot Guardian post-free distraction system which had just been purchased by their facility.
This distractor eliminates the need for a post in the groin area, while still enabling standard hip arthroscopy procedures. Although there are inherent risks of complications in any hip arthroscopy procedure, without
a post, there is no risk for post-related complications. Daniel’s second procedure was performed using the Pivot Guardian.
“I was so glad that I brought this up and felt so relieved going into my second surgery knowing I would not experience that trauma again,” said Hall.
After the second procedure, Daniel felt about the same as far as his hip recovery pain, but he had no groin- related complications. Daniel’s advice to anyone who is planning to undergo surgery is to speak up and
talk to your doctor about available treatment options. They may have a solution to help ease your anxiety before your next procedure!
All surgery carries risk. See your orthopaedic surgeon to discuss your potential benefits and risks. Not all patients will have the same post-operative recovery and activity level. Individual
results vary.