We are very pleased to introduce the latest member of the BallaratOSM team, and announce the expansion of our services to provide patients of Ballarat and surrounding districts with the highest quality, patient-focused, individual care.
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David Mitchell has been to the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery, and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine biannual meeting, this time in Mexico.
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As of 29th April, we have moved to Novar at 109 Webster Street. All Orthopaedic consultations and Sports Medicine consultations will take place at the new address
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Tuesday 12 February saw the launch of the Concussion in Sport Australia Position Statement.
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The reason to have a joint replacement is pain or disability. If you don’t have much of either, the risk of surgery includes not making you better enough for it to have been worthwhile.
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How to add the Ballarat OSM Appointment Page to your Mobile Device in 6 Easy Steps
Without having to continuously search through your internet browser and navigate our website, we have made it quicker and easier for you to book an appointment online from your mobile device. Here are 6 steps on how to add the Ballarat OSM appointment page to your mobile device.
A study in Australia and the US was commenced almost a decade ago to assess whether being on long term aspirin increased a perfectly healthy patient’s chance of survival. Aspirin is traditionally expected to reduce cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks or strokes, there have been studies showing a reduced cancer risk, and only a tiny increase in bleeding risk causing death.
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Patients present with pain over the outer aspect of their hip, it can radiate down as far as the knee. It is exacerbated by walking, and can be excruciating to lay on in bed. The pain seems to be caused by a tendinopathy of the gluteal tendons.
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Patients having two joint replacements at the same time is a controversial question. In general, most patients are best to have a short hospitalisation, get out and get recovered from the first side, before embarking on the other.
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Trunionosis / Metal on Metal problems
The Birmingham was the first of the Resurfacing hip replacement and became available in the late 90’s. It had a low dislocation rate, and early results were good. In older patients, a traditional hip replacement stem was used to avoid problems related to osteoporosis.
Some new brands appeared on the market, and started to have failures, but the modular Birmingham’s seems unaffected. With 10 year results, we can say the long term results are about average for hip replacements, but a few are appearing with problems of wear between the chrome-cobalt metal head and the titanium stem (see arrow in diagram). A small amount of wear occurring at this “trunion” seems to cause a wear products to collect in the joint, be “phagocytosed” by white blood cells, which can then damage the surrounding bone. The joint can be a little swollen, causing the joint to be stiffer than expected.
An idea to solve the problem has been to the leave metal shell in place, replace the large metal head with a smaller oxinium one, and used a polyethylene dual mobility liner between them. What is unknown about this solution is how long it will last, but we do know that alternative of removing the metal shell sometimes finds less bone to support a new socket than expected. Our current recommendation is to use a dual mobility liner in the older patients for an easier recovery, but replace the shell in younger patients.
Arrow point to the junction of the metal head and titanium stem. Wear at this location seems to cause a problem in about 1% of patients per year. The image on the right shows a new articulation, but keeping the existing cup & stem.
In this image the cup has been replaced with a new cup and plastic liner, the screw being used to ensure it fixes properly to bone.
In this instance the trunion was so damaged that the only option was to change the whole stem.
