Hip Replacement
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Education is extremely important.
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@horace 5555
Even more tough than that Soviet doctor who preformed surgery on himself when at an Antarctic station
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@taiwan_girl said in Hip Replacement:
@horace 5555
Even more tough than that Soviet doctor who preformed surgery on himself when at an Antarctic station
lol. I remember that story too. Impressive feat.
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Ruh, Roh:
An Amur tiger that underwent hip-replacement surgery at a zoo outside Chicago has managed to dislodge the orthopedic implant, veterinarians at Brookfield Zoo said Thursday.
Malena recovered well from Wednesday’s surgery, but as she began moving about overnight the custom-made implant in a femur was dislodged. The 10-year-old tiger will undergo surgery on Saturday to remove the implant and an alternative procedure will be performed that will allow a fibrous joint to form and her leg muscles provide stability to the joint.
Dr. Mike Adkesson said veterinarians knew going into the novel surgery there was a risk of complications.
“Going into surgery, we knew if it was not successful, we still had a secondary option to relieve her discomfort,” Adkesson said. “While she won’t have the high level of function we were hoping to restore with the innovative total hip replacement, Malena will be able to move around comfortably without pain in her hip.”
Veterinarians at Brookfield Zoo noted that, like humans, animals routinely develop degenerative problems in their joints as they age. When the tiger, Malena, arrived at the zoo last year, she had already been diagnosed with arthritis of the hip and was receiving pain relief medications.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Cook, of the University of Missouri, who led the surgery team, said the 6.5-hour surgery was very challenging and took longer than expected. But he said the operation was a success and that the tiger seemed to have full range of motion in her hip after the procedure.
Cook will again assist the veterinary team in a procedure to perform this revision surgery based on the original contingency plan. Malena will remain in the zoo’s animal hospital until then.
A dislocated hip prosthesis is a big deal. This is the kind of thing that truly, at least in humans, qualifies as a "middle of the night emergency."
I'd guess that 80% of the ones I've taken care of were able to be reduced (repositioned) under general anesthesia, with the followup being prolonged immobilization to let things scar down and secure the prosthesis in place. In the 20% where it was unsuccessful, surgeon had to re-open the site, reposition the prosthesis and sew everything down - tighter. And then, prolonged immobilization in abductor pillow. Or as Surgeon Ed called it "the blue buddy."
I'd guess that immobilization in a tiger is a non-starter.
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Poor ol' terribly ferocious kitteh.
