Sports Medicine Physician Opines on Inappropriate Removal of Joint Cartilage

Case Overview

This case involves a young female patient who began to complain of persistent pain in her left hip some time after giving birth to her second child. After the pain began to get progressively worse, an MRI was ordered. The MRI revealed a tear in the patient’s labrum, a rim of cartilage that provides cushioning and stability to the hip joint. The plaintiff then underwent surgery to repair the tear, however she experienced increased pain as well as difficulty walking following the procedure. A few months after undergoing the procedure, the patient experienced a sudden dislocation of her hip joint while walking. A subsequent MRI revealed extensive joint damage, and physicians elected to operate. During the surgery doctors discovered that the woman had no cartilage in her hip – it had apparently been removed by the operating physician during her original surgery. As a result, the patient was forced to undergo a total Zimmer hip replacement procedure at a young age.

Questions to the Sports Injury expert and their responses

Do you routinely treat patients like the one described in this case?

I am a sports medicine fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon with 20 years of surgical experience. I have been doing hip arthroscopy for over 15 years. I routinely perform in excess of 80 hip arthroscopies a year as a significant part of my surgical practices.

Have you ever had a patient develop this outcome?

It is not expected or ordinary for a young female's hip with an isolated labral tear to go on to be basically arthritic, requiring a total joint replacement. Nor is it expected for a hip to subluxate after simple labral repair. Postsurgical hip subluxation is a complication of hip arthroscopy that is very rare and should have been discussed in the preoperative consenting process. The literature is ripe with case reports of post-surgical hip arthroscopy subluxation from too aggressive a capsulotomy or capsulectomy without addressing the capsule at the time of closure at the end of the case to stabilize the hip within the socket.

About the expert

This expert is board certified in orthopedic surgery and has been practicing for over 20 years. He completed his internship and residency in orthopedics at Tripler Army Medical Center and a fellowship at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and has published 66+ peer-reviewed journal articles. Formerly, he served as the Director of a sports medicine fellowship program, a Physician, and an Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Connecticut. He is currently an Orthopedic Surgeon and Research Director at an orthopedic group in Texas.

E-017978

Specialties:

Sports Injury