Monthly Archives: September 2009

Spondylolisthesis – A Fancy Name for a Common Spine Problem

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Did you know that back pain and leg pain will cause about 20% of our population to see a physician each year? Although most back pain is minor and will usually resolve on its own,  there are many different diagnoses that can cause lingering lower back pain.  About 10% of the patients that see an orthopaedic spine specialist for their back pain are diagnosed with a condition where the bones in the spine have slipped or changed position slightly.  In medical terminology, this is called spondylolisthesis.

There are several different reasons that the bones may slide or change position.  The most common is degenerative disease of the discs that cause the bones of the spine to sit more loosely on each other and allows shifting to occur.  Children may also have a failure to form a complete connection in the spine.  This lack of connection allows the bones to slip on each other.

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Anterior Hip Replacement – What is it all about?

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As a Fellowship Trained Joint Replacement Surgeon, I am often asked about the latest developments in arthritis surgery.  With the advent of minimally invasive techniques in orthopedic surgery there has been a renewed interest in performing hip replacement through the front (anterior) of the hip as opposed to the more traditional posterior, or backside approach.  The logic behind anterior hip replacement is to try to minimize muscle damage by separating muscles to gain access to the front of the hip as opposed to releasing and repairing the muscles to gain access to the hip joint form behind.  In short, there is no perfect way to deliver implants to the hip joint.  If there were, we would all be performing that approach only for hip replacement surgery. Having given you this background, these are the most frequently asked questions encountered in my office:

Is anterior hip replacement a new technique?

No. The anterior hip approach was first described by Smith-Petersen in 1917.  It was used by the French surgeon, Robert Judet, in 1947 to perform an isolated femoral head replacement.  This later evolved into other French surgeons performing complete hip joint replacements through an anterior exposure in the 1960’s.

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