As a surgeon with a specialty practice in hip and knee replacement surgery, patients rely on my expertise.  Recently, a patient asked me why I no longer use the anterior approach for total hip replacement.  I stopped performing this procedure because in my experience there are no advantages to the surgery, rather a number of potential disadvantages.  Simply, I couldn't continue to use a procedure that I could not trust to deliver every time.

Some patients in need of a hip replacement will ask me if they are candidates for a partial rather than a total hip replacement because it sounds “less invasive.” Unlike the knee (which has three distinct compartments and when one wears out there’s a good chance that only that compartment needs to be replaced), the hip is a single ball (femoral head) and joint socket (acetabulum) and a partial hip replacement often isn’t the optimum choice.