Fortis Hospitals Bangalore performed India’s first ‘Hip Revision Surgery using Revitan Straight Revision Hip System’ for a patient suffering from Aseptic Loosening of a Total Hip Replacement.

Dr Manish Samson, consultant orthopaedic and joint Replacement Surgeon and his team at Fortis Hospital Bannerghatta road, Bangalore performed this surgery with the help of the new Revitan Straight hip revision System. The new highly modular hip implant works like a perfect instrumentation system giving the surgeon the intraoperative freedom to manage most of the bone deficiencies faced during any revision hip replacement surgeries in the most simplified and quickest way possible reducing the risk of infection following long operative hours.

“A surgeon has to handle two crucial factors in a Revision Hip surgery: removal of the existing failed implant with maximum bone preserved and selection of suitable new implant to negotiate the existing bone. Revitan Straight Revision hip system takes care of the latter,” stated Dr Samson.

The patient, Richard D’souza, a 42-year-old man, was suffering from AVN that hampers blood supply to the hip bone giving the patient an unbearable pain. The patient was suffering with this condition and had got operated with Cemented Total hip replacement surgeries on both the hips five years back. Since last one year he started experiencing severe pain in his left hip joint. Richard was brought to Fortis hospital where the doctors diagnosed him to have Aseptic loosening of the left hip joint. The revision surgery was very complex in nature, as the doctors have to remove the previously installed implant along with the cement filling that could fracture the bone to a great extent.

Conventional revision hip surgeries have long operative hours and end up in huge amount of bone loss in addition to damage to the soft tissues increasing the risk of infection. This new system saves valuable intra-operative time with maximum modularity making revision hip surgery quicker, simpler and cheaper, stated Dr Samson.

Failed Total Hip replacement surgeries due to various reasons in patients who are young and elderly patients with healthier bones are eligible for this revision surgery.

Revision hip replacement surgery is a procedure to replace a worn out or loosened hip replacement implant. Hip replacements wear out very slowly, but the problem does progress over the years. Ten years after a hip replacement, there is a 90 per cent chance the implant will be functioning well. 20 years after surgery, the chance is about 80 per cent.

Other causes of a hip replacement wearing out include infection, breaking of the prosthesis, breaking of the bone around the prosthesis, and other complications. Depending on the cause of the implant failing, treatment other than revision hip replacement may be needed. For example, in the case of infection, the hip replacement may need to be removed to treat the infection, followed by the revision hip replacement months later.

Revision hip replacements are more complicated surgeries and the outcomes are not as good as the first hip replacement. Technical problems include the quality of the bone and the ability to adequately secure the revision hip replacements into position. Furthermore, removing the old hip replacement can necessitate more extensive surgery. Together, these problems often require the revision hip replacement to be much more complex. Careful planning by the orthopaedic surgeon is needed to ensure he or she will be able to construct a hip that will allow you to adequately recovery, said Dr Samson.