Hip preservation: Moving the needle in patient care
Hip preservation treats a wide variety of conditions such as hip dysplasia, hip impingement, hip torsion/rotation abnormalities, hip synovitis, snapping hip and hip labrum tears.
The Hip Preservation Program at Children’s National Hospital offers advanced care to children and adults with hip pain, providing a continuum of care that extends well into adulthood. Jeffrey Peck, M.D., an orthopaedic surgeon with subspecialty interests in pediatric and young adult hip preservation, discusses the program and what Children’s National is doing to move the needle forward in patient care.
Q: What is hip preservation and what are common conditions it addresses?
A: The field of hip preservation is dedicated to diagnosing and treating hip conditions that result in hip pain and can potentially result in hip degeneration.
There are several potential conditions that can lead to hip pain and eventual hip joint degeneration. These include atypical anatomy in and around the hip joint, which can be congenital, developmental or traumatic in origin. Strains and sprains of the muscles and ligaments around the hip may also cause hip joint pain. Hip preservation treats a wide variety of conditions such as hip dysplasia, hip impingement, hip torsion/rotation abnormalities, hip synovitis, snapping hip and hip labrum tears.
Q: Who is affected and when should a patient seek out an orthopaedic expert?
A: The people most often affected by conditions treated through hip preservation are adolescents and young adults up to age 45 years old who develop hip pain. When hip pain does not subside, it can be due to a condition that has resulted in hip joint inflammation that may eventually begin to cause hip joint degeneration leading to arthritis if the condition is not treated. If a patient has hip pain that lasts for multiple months without improving, it is prudent to seek evaluation with a hip preservation orthopaedic surgeon specialist.
Q: What is Children’s National doing to move the needle for hip preservation patients?
A: Children’s National cares for patients with hip pain using an integrated care team, featuring a Hip Preservation fellowship trained surgeon, physiatry experts, sports psychologists, radiologists and physical therapists with a focus on adolescents and young adults. We work in a collaborative environment with the shared goal of helping patients with hip pain return to living life without the pain that has held them back.
The Children’s National team also collects patient reported outcome scores to better understand the severity of patient symptoms and, later, how surgery has improved those symptoms. Additionally, Children’s National is engaged in research endeavors evaluating hip conditions and how patients have responded to treatment. By pursuing these efforts, we not only assist the patients we see today, but also contribute to advancing care to better help future patients.
Q: What excites you about the future for the field of hip preservation?
A: The field of Hip Preservation is a young specialty within orthopaedic surgery that has demonstrated consistently positive outcomes for patients who previously had very limited treatment options for their hip pain. With this comparative newness comes continual innovation and advancement as we learn more about how hip pain can occur and what we can do to best treat that pain. Procedures that we perform at Children’s National such as the Ganz Periacetabular Osteotomy (PAO) and the use of hip arthroscopy to treat hip impingement are relatively new innovations in the field of orthopaedics that can provide immense relief to patients having hip pain.
