Hip specialist / surgeon

scottfrasernz

This could be a long shot - but does anyone know of or had attention from a hip specialist/surgeon that they could recommend?

Advice from someone who has had keyhole or reconstructive surgery rather than full replacement would be ideal.

I had some x-rays done and my left hip joint is in a right state. Can't really ride my bike

I may be facing a bionic hip a la Flandis...

So someone who understands cycling or is a cyclist would be ideal.

Thanks

fastsuzi

Mr Marcellino Maheson is the man if your near south wales, look him up at the bupa hospital in cardiff

ghostynlr

I had reconstructive surgery done on my left hip when i was 16 (36 now), the bone had rotted away and had to be rebuilt and pinned (3 pins and 40 staples). Riding a road bike is no problem, but mountain bikes are different. I have to have the seat right the way and use flat pedals as the BB width moves my hip out to far to create a straight up and down pedal stroke.Not that i have a perfect stroke anyway, my left hip flicks out whenever i pedal and looks quite strange to other cyclists.

scottfrasernz

OK thanks for the info fastsuzi.

I forgot to say that I am based in London. But I would travel for sure if there is a specialist out there who can get me going again without full-on surgery being needed.

Cheers

Scott

mackdaddy

Scott

Is your hip arthiritic? I have osteo in my right hip and will be approaching the samne problem so I'd be interested to know how you get on. Would you mind keeping me posted?

Lee

scottfrasernz

Hi Lee

Yes me too. Sure I can keep you posted. I have a few leads so far.

Best thing to do is to send me a private message in a week or so and I'll share what I have with you.

Do you take glucosamine? That can be really helpful as well as avoiding foods that can exacerbate inflammation. If you do a web search on that you can find some very useful information.

Cheers

Scott

Frank the tank

I have osteo arthritis in my lef hip and the specialist I was refered to was a Mr Hatton who performs an op called the Birmingham hip. It is better than a hip replacement.

I'm 47 and a friend of mine who happened to be a british (veteran champ) at cyclo X won the national trophy and the championship has had this op on both of his hips.

V-twin

Scott, what sort of daily dosage of Glucosamine do you find effective?

Over the counter tabs seem to be about 300mg each whereas up to 1500mg seems to be quoted in the medical reports I've seen.

V-T

The Hedgehog

at the moment i'm going through a process of having my left hip investigated as i'm getting lots of discomfort & sciatica type pain in the left leg. I'm also getting pain right across the lower back, even on the right side. What i would like to know is if anyone knows whether problems in the hip can cause refered pain in the back too. thanks

Frank the tank

The Hedgehog wrote:

at the moment i'm going through a process of having my left hip investigated as i'm getting lots of discomfort & sciatica type pain in the left leg. I'm also getting pain right across the lower back, even on the right side. What i would like to know is if anyone knows whether problems in the hip can cause refered pain in the back too. thanks

My hip has given me sciatica type pain as you describe, It also gives me a pain in the groin (very much like a groin strain). Not had any pain in my lumbar region but certainly all down my left leg.

mackdaddy

The Hedgehog wrote:

at the moment i'm going through a process of having my left hip investigated as i'm getting lots of discomfort & sciatica type pain in the left leg. I'm also getting pain right across the lower back, even on the right side. What i would like to know is if anyone knows whether problems in the hip can cause refered pain in the back too. thanks

In my case I did get sciatic pain in the whole leg and in my back. I also had the groin strain feeling and still get that the most.

This wasn't a direct result of the arthritis, it was a result of the cause of the arthritis. It was found that my left leg is 15mm shorter than my right which after years of running and football had damaged my right hip. The sciatic type pain was caused by the pelvis being on a slant and my spine trying to correct it.

Don't know if this helps at all.

Jaguar.

I too have osteoarthritis in my left hip, according to the specialist I see it's quite bad, bone against bone in there he says with a big grin on his face! Not seen the funny side yet, myself. Anyways, it doesn't hurt, or at least I can deal with the pain. Ultimately I'll have to have it replaced or resurface but not yet.

I do have problems in that my left leg now has noticeably (to me) less bulk than the right, it amazes me how the body compensates for injury. I also wear out right pedals faster too!

I considered training with left leg pedalling but if pedalling with just my left leg, it stalls at the top of the stroke due to limited range of movement so it is incredibly uncomfortable after more than a few strokes. So anybody any better ideas of how to train up the left leg, should I persevere with the left leg pedalling idea or should I just carry on as I am on the grounds that I'm better training my right leg?

Oh, Glucosamine, I used 1000mg for about a year, a few years back... Made no difference whatsoever when comparing with the year before and subsequent years. We're all different though so might be worth a try.

The Hedgehog

mackdaddy wrote:

The Hedgehog wrote:

at the moment i'm going through a process of having my left hip investigated as i'm getting lots of discomfort & sciatica type pain in the left leg. I'm also getting pain right across the lower back, even on the right side. What i would like to know is if anyone knows whether problems in the hip can cause refered pain in the back too. thanks

In my case I did get sciatic pain in the whole leg and in my back. I also had the groin strain feeling and still get that the most.

This wasn't a direct result of the arthritis, it was a result of the cause of the arthritis. It was found that my left leg is 15mm shorter than my right which after years of running and football had damaged my right hip. The sciatic type pain was caused by the pelvis being on a slant and my spine trying to correct it.

Don't know if this helps at all.

Thanks for this. It is comforting in some ways (not for you I know!!) to know that you too got back pain from the hip problem. I'm aware that my body will be over compensating in certain ways and I'm definitely getting the domino effect of one problem leading to another. I'm awaiting results of scans - hopefully the specialist will be able to identify the problem & positive & successful action can be taken.

scottfrasernz

Thanks for all the input, much appreciated. I am still building up a list of potential specialists who could help, but I'll share what I have when it's a bit more complete.

@ v-twin yes, about 1500mg seems to be the consensus on the amount of glucosamine to take daily. Bear in mind it is a sugar so it's good to take it with some foods containing healthy fats for example a couple of walnuts.

Some good options I've found:

Holland & Barrett Glucosamine Sulphate 500mg, 240 capsule bottle, often on special.

Ultimate Effervescent 1500mg Glucosamine & Chondroitin Sachets, 30 sachets, www.alimentnutrition.co.uk

Topricin Glucosamine, complex with many herbal anti-inflammatory ingredients, www.topricin.com/ingredients

@ the hedgehog advice I've had is that the knee and hip 'share' many nerves so pain often refers from the hip to the knee or down the side of the leg. Back pain most likely is associated pain caused by an imbalance in your pevis alignment, either caused by the affected leg physically or functionally shortening, or by your favouring your sore leg. I have had help from a chiropractor and also a podiatrist - this had been quite effective.

@ mackdaddy and jaguar your affected leg is effectively shorter, as the hip tightens up to 'protect' itself. If you notice you are assymetric in your pedalling then I would experiment with shimming your cleats using the 'le wedge' product www.cyclefit.co.uk/lemond.html and also to see a podiatrist so they can assess your standing and walking posture as well. If you can achieve better symmetry through your pelvis this may help with your symptoms. What I've learned is that it's very important to address your walking setup (you may benefit from orthotics) as well as your cycling setup and to try and do this at the same time. Also I changed down to a 170mm crank and this helped because like you my longer crank was pushing me to lift my affected knee/hip higher than it was able to go. Also raising your saddle can help.

In terms of arriving at a better bike setup, there seems to be no silver bullet. Others can help you but I think arming yourself with more understanding and knowledge is the best bet - so you can try things and update your setup as your body adapts to any changes.

If you raise your cleat by say 5mm then I think it's wise to do the same with your walking shoe on the same side. You can pay a podiatrist or even DIY with a piece of foam rubber under the insole on that side. The aim long term should be to level your hip bones if you can but you need to make the changes incrementally.

Steve Hogg's articles on Cycling News are invaluable for this - probably the best source of knowledge out there. You can search on this page www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/#qa where your questions have possibly been answered already.

Hope this helps

Scott

V-twin

Cheers, Scott


V-T

Jaguar.

scottfrasernz wrote:

@ mackdaddy and jaguar your affected leg is effectively shorter, as the hip tightens up to 'protect' itself. If you notice you are assymetric in your pedalling then I would experiment with shimming your cleats using the 'le wedge' product www.cyclefit.co.uk/lemond.html and also to see a podiatrist so they can assess your standing and walking posture as well. If you can achieve better symmetry through your pelvis this may help with your symptoms. What I've learned is that it's very important to address your walking setup (you may benefit from orthotics) as well as your cycling setup and to try and do this at the same time. Also I changed down to a 170mm crank and this helped because like you my longer crank was pushing me to lift my affected knee/hip higher than it was able to go. Also raising your saddle can help.
Scott

Yes, thanks for the ideas... I've messed with shortening the crank but the flip side is I want to keep forcing it to try to keep the range of movement. Maybe I should be doing both, i.e. left leg pedalling on short cranks normal riding on long ones. Never crossed my mind to shim the cleats, will give that a go. Saddle height, yes should probably give that another play, might be able to improve things there.

Tom Butcher

Just read the Floyd Landis book (leant me by a mate - not worth spending money on) and the Birmingham Hip mentioned above is what Landis has had. He also mentions the man that did the op and from memory I've an inkling it was a UK surgeon that did it - though I could be way out on that second bit.

Tom Butcher

Googling it this is the guy

http://www.pdpix.eclipse.co.uk/RT/Ronan_Treacy.htm

davemac

if you are based in London then I can recommend Richard Villar at The Wellington Hospital.

www.richardvillar.com

Very well regarded and does a lot of work with professional sports people. Got me back on my bike after 12 months of problems with my hip.

Jaguar.

scottfrasernz wrote:

Also raising your saddle can help.
Scott

Nice one, thanks again! I'm not sure why I'd not tried it already To be fair I had but it seems I was being conservative. Raising the saddle by a fairly radical amount means that the normal leg is near perfect and feels like it's working better, the knackered hip leg is probably over stretching at the bottom but goes over the top without stalling which feels an awful lot nicer and probably works better too. This means that left leg pedalling is now an option but hard because I've been over-compensating with the right for a few years now. I thought the overstretch in the left would cause me problems, knee etc, but a 100 miler on Sunday says no! Or at least not yet :?

I think the shorter leg is as much as 10mm shorter now due to absence of most of the cartlidge in the hip.

Moral of the story, don't be afraid to play around a bit, or even a lot!