Dr. Kent Boese and Mini-Incision Hip Replacement

C. Kent Boese, M.D. Orthopaedic surgeon with the Alegent Health Orthopaedic Institute More than 168,000 total hip replacement surgeries are performed in the United States each year.  The surgery involves removal of the ball of the hip joint and implantation of a prosthetic ball and socket. Recent advances in technology have greatly increased the effectiveness and durability of this procedure.

The new minimally Invasive Approach to Hip Replacement Surgery, or "mini-incision hip replacement," procedure involves a breakthrough in surgical technique-hip replacement with only a three to four-inch incision. The shortened incision, one third the length of a traditional incision, results in less muscle and hip capsule damage than in traditional hip replacement surgery.

Special lighting instruments allow the surgeon to see the hip joint through the small incision, and modifications of the surgical instruments allow for a highdegree of reliability and accuracy in the small operating field.  The approach can be readily modified if a larger operative field becomes necessary during the procedure.

Advantages to the new mini-hip procedure include reduced postoperative pain, faster recovery, decreased blood loss, and fewer postoperative dislocations. Some patients may also experience a shortened postoperative hospital stay.

Dr. C. Kent Boese with the Alegent Health Orthopaedic Institute was a pioneer of the improved procedure. "I've done more than 1,000 hip replacements," he says. "It became a technical challenge to start making the incision smaller and smaller and smaller." Documentation shows that hospital stays for the procedure are one day shorter.

Educated consumers have begun asking for the procedure, and the demand is keeping Dr. Boese on the mve. He and a team of three surgeons are traveling the world teaching it to other physicians.