Article : Hip replacement breakthrough

A British woman has become the first hip replacement patient in Europe to
leave hospital in little more than 24 hours thanks to a new surgery
technique.
The 68-year-old underwent the minimally invasive "2-Incision" procedure at
Chase Farm Hospital in north London, and was allowed home just 27 hours
after surgery.

The average length of hospital stay for a traditional hip replacement
operation is 11 days and developers of the new technique believe it could
save the NHS millions of pounds a year.

Around 30 people in the UK have so far had the operation but until now have
been kept in hospital longer for observation.

The 2-Incision technique involves standard implants being inserted through
two small cuts which can be as little as 4cm compared to the usual 30cm
incision in traditional surgery.

The procedure does not involve cutting any muscles, as is common in other
techniques.

Instead the muscle is simply moved to one side, leading to smaller scars,
reduced blood loss and faster, less painful rehabilitation.

The patient said she had one hip replaced using traditional surgery and the
other using the new technique both on the NHS.

The patient said: "There is simply no comparison.

"I have had less bruising, swelling and pain this time and was walking up
and down stairs the day after my surgery.

"This time, I was ready to leave hospital the next day. Last time I was in
hospital for 11 days.

"I can't praise the surgical team and nursing staff at Chase Farm enough.
They were absolutely excellent."

At the moment only a small number of UK surgeons are trained in the
technique, but a training programme is under way and it is thought the
operation will soon become more widely available.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said orthopaedic surgeons were constantly
looking at ways to develop new methods of surgery using techniques for hip
replacement which were less invasive than the traditional operation.

http://www.itv.com/news/789564.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3153262.stm