Hip Replacement: Health Story

Aired on Superstation WGN
Saturday, January 29 and March 12, 2005
Show 204

"I was in severe hip pain for two years," says Kathleen Flanagan who had micro-surgery hip replacement. "I went home the same day I had surgery. It's like a miracle." Almost 200,000 Americans have hip replacements a year. "With micro-surgery we make only two small incisions. No muscles or tendons are cut," says Dr. Richard Berger of Rush University Medical Center. Arthritis sufferer Lemmel Clay had to have both hips replaced. One hip was done with traditional surgery, the other with mirco-surgery. He had a much quicker recovery with the hip replacement where micro-surgery was used. "Micro-surgery allows patients to mobilize sooner with less complications. And it's just as safe as conventional surgery," says Dr. James Ninomiya of Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin. "I was given the gift of a new life," says Kathleen about her micro-surgery hip replacement.