At UCSF Health Saint Francis Hospital, our expert orthopedic surgeons are dedicated to delivering the best treatment for your hip pain. We offer a variety of procedures to help alleviate your pain and get you back to doing the things you love.
Hip Replacement Procedures
- Non-cement: Hip replacement surgery has improved markedly over the last 20 years due to improvements in design and materials. 99.9 percent of the hip replacements performed at UCSF Health Saint Francis Hospital are performed without cement.
- Anterior Approach: The anterior approach for hip replacement is a surgical technique that has has demonstrated numerous advantages for patients with hip pain, such as a small incision, a reduced dislocation rate, shorter early rehabilitation, and improved accuracy of limb length, and implant position.
- Posterior Approach: The posterior approach to hip replacement has a strong record of success and a low complication rate. The implant is inserted into the joint without the use of bone cement because the thigh bone will grow into it on its own, resulting in a secure and reliable fit.
- Metal-on-metal Hip Replacement: Due to advances in technology there is very little wear and very little friction with a metal-on-metal prosthesis.
- Ceramic Hip Replacement: The high performance ceramic hip has a very low coefficient of friction and very little particulate matter is produced. It is very durable and has a low-fracture rate.
- Minimally Invasive Hip Replacement: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques are used with clinically proven implants and can shorten recovery times, reduce hospital length of stay, result in smaller incisions, and less scarring. The instruments used in MIS have been improved and modified to enable surgeons the ability to properly align and place the implants though a much smaller incision. This smaller incision also helps to minimize blood loss and post-surgery pain.
Additional Hip Pain Treatment Options
- Hip Resurfacing: Hip resurfacing is a procedure that is intended for use in a younger (65) years and under patient population, a more physically active group with a history of hip pain. The procedure is bone conserving. The head of the femur is reshaped and resurfaced and capped with a large metal cap. The femoral neck is preserved. In hip resurfacing, both the socket and the ball components are made of chrome cobalt. The size of the components is almost identical to the size of the natural femur. This is much less likely to dislocate than the smaller head of the typical total hip replacement. This means that patients can return to higher levels of activity without worrying about dislocation of the implant.
- Anti-inflammatory Injections: Injections with a cortisone-like material acts as a powerful anti-inflammatory. The cortisone-like material has been found not to cause any destruction to the cartilage. Injections can bring relief for years, months or weeks.
- Hip Arthroscopy: In this minimally invasive procedure, a small camera lens is inserted into the hip joint through a quarter-inch incision. A television monitor displays the image while surgical instruments are manipulated via a second small incision. The procedure takes less than one hour. Patients go home on crutches, which are usually discarded within a few days.
