Alternative To Hip Replacement
What's old may be new again, when it comes to osteoarthritis.
Doctors in New York are studying a procedure that could help about two million Americans who suffer from arthritis of the hip.
On The Saturday Early Show, Dr. Mallika Marshall from WBZ-TV reported on an innovative procedure that is very effective at treating arthritis of the knee, and is now showing great promise at treating arthritis of the hip.
For nearly 20 years, Carol Slippen has searched but failed to find a cure for her constant leg pain.
"I've gone for massage therapy. I've seen a rheumatologist. I've seen an osteopath. I've gone for physical therapy," Slippen said. "I've run the whole gamut of doing everything you can do, because you don't want to be in pain."
Eventually, the pain caused by the osteoarthritis in her right hip has been slowing Slippen down. Many patients in her situation would choose to have a hip replacement. But Slippen is trying an experimental procedure.
It's a two-pronged therapy, Lavage and Visco-supplementation. Marshall says its success rate with arthritic knees is very high, and now doctors at New York's Hospital for Special Surgery are testing it on hips.
"You are replacing the old joint fluid that is really not doing its job, which is to protect the cartilage," Hospital for Special Surgery's Dr. Vjay Vad said.
The first step in the procedure is to clean out the hip joint with saline. The second step is to use Visco-supplementation. It involves three injections of a substance called Synvisc that mimmicks the hip's natural fluids. Slippen's doctor, Vad, is due to release the results of his research within the next few months.
"Four out of five people are doing well at a year, so that's an 80 percent success rate," Vad said.
So far, Slippen is doing very well. She says she won't be sitting on the sidelines at her son's wedding this month.
"I'm walking down that aisle and I'm dancing at that wedding, there's no two ways about it," she said.
The key, Vad said, is to catch the disease in its early stages so that a hip replacement can be delayed if not completely avoided.
There are several risk factors for osteoarthritis, said Marshall. They include heredity, obesity, injury, or overuse of certain joints. The condition also becomes more common as a person grows older. Osteoarthritis is known as "wear and tear" arthritis and is very different from rheumatoid arthritis, where the body's immune system attacks its own joints.
Many people feel that osteoarthritis means an end to exercise but that's not so. Marshall explains that exercise is one of the best ways to treat the disease in its early stages. You will have to modify your routine and certain forms of exercises are better than others, such as swimming and strength training.
The key is muscle strengthening, Marshall says. Often doctors prescribe physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around an arthritic joint and this can help tremendously, according to Marshall.
Many doctors prescribe drugs such as Celebrex or Vioxx that inhibit an enzyme, called COX-2, that causes pain and inflammation. Marshall says those drugs can be very effective at treating osteoarthritis.
However, unlike more traditional anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, Celebrex and Vioxx don't reduce the risk of developing blood clots that can cause heart attacks and strokes. So, people who rely on aspirin for its anti-clotting effect cannot depend on Celebrex or Vioxx to provide the same benefits, explains Marshall.