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HIP REPLACEMENT IN CASE OF ARTHRITIS

In the event of wearing out of the joint, inborn hip defect, inflammation as a result of an accident, the artificial joint replacement may be required.
For this, there are different surgical methods:

The Birmingham hip resurfacing after McMinn (BHR), the Birmingham mid head resection (BMHR), the big head total endoprosthesis (TEP)

The parts of the hip joint worn out as a result of disease and responsible for the disorders are replaced by artificial joints: these are the femoral head and the acetabulum, as a rule. Every artificial joint aims to preserve as much as possible bone substance. In the preceding decades, alongside the conventional standard implants, there have been developed the so-called "bone-saving" hip implants, which can be a reasonable alternative, above all, for the patients with good bone substance.

The first two surgical methods mentioned, the hip resurfacing and the mid head resection represent such "bone-saving methods, which imply the replacement of the surface of the diseased bone only or a part of a femoral head respectively. No removal of the femoral neck or of the femoral head, characteristic of the standard procedure (TEP), takes place here. The mid head resection (BMHR) is applied in a few specialized clinics only.

In the end, it depends upon a couple of factors, what kind of implant and which procedure is reasonable: these include e.g. a person's age, physique, bone quality, habits and activities. The hip stem is anchored in the femur. At the top of the stem there is a spherical head that replaces the worn femoral head. The spherical head is sliding in the hip socket, which is anchored in the pelvis.