sucess rate of core decompression

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I have a 15 yr old daughter with bilateral avn of hips, knees and shoulders. She was advised to have CD's on both knees in the very near future since x-rays show collapse of both. I believe she is at stage 3 and am very apprehensive to go ahead with the surgery since I hear after collapse the success rate of CD's is very low at that point. The orthopedist already stated he would not touch the hips because the AVN was too advanced. He referred us to a "adult replacement" surgeon for the hips. I know her age is against her but to put a 15 yr old thru that kind of surgery and recouperation time for the cd's is alot, not to mention time off from school etc. Does anyone have percentages of success rates for core decompressions done at various stages of avn???

-- Sue Smith (HIghanxiety56568@aol.com), August 24, 2003

Answers

Sue,

Sorry to hear about your daughter's situation with osteonecrosis. I have it in both hips, and had a core decompression and trap door bone graft done on the one hip 3 years ago @ the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. David Lewallen did my surgery, and it seems to have been very successful. He was wonderful, can't say enough about him. My understanding is that the core decompression alone is successful in the very early stages, and I think stage 3 on the Ficat scale is a bit of a cross your fingers kind of situation. Have you gotten a second opinion? I think I would, Dr. Michael Mont @ Good Samaritan in Baltimore, Dr. Hungerford, also in Baltimore, and Dr. Lewallen in Rochester, are some options for you. I don't know where you live, but I know people have had success with Dr. David Dore at Celebration Hospital in Orlando, too. I had sent my MRI's, and films to Dr. Mont before I decided on what procedure to have done, and he was great, he reviewed them for me and we spoke a couple of times. I had the surgery at Mayo, as it was closer to me for traveling by minivan post op, and I was very happy with the surgeons there, who knew Dr. Mont, and were versed in his techniques. Good luck, any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Louise

-- Louise (Lcra4329841@aol.com), October 04, 2003.


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