Caring for Newborns to Adults with Complex Hip Disorders

At the Hip Preservation Program at Cincinnati Children’s, we offer coordinated care of hip problems in patients ranging in age from newborn up to 45 years old. Our skilled team has expertise in treating all hip conditions, whether congenital, developmental or post-traumatic.

Leaders in Hip Preservation

Our overall goal is hip preservation and providing the best lifelong care for our patients. That means we use treatments with a focus on saving the natural hip joint to prevent or reduce pain, and prevent or significantly delay hip replacement.

Our team of specialists consists of experienced surgeons trained in both pediatric and adult orthopaedic procedures with additional fellowship training in hip preservation. We work together to determine the diagnosis, optimal treatment, and the best perioperative care plan for you or your child. 

For our patients at any age, we focus on monitoring and proactively treating the condition while keeping the future, long-term health of the hip at the forefront of all decisions. We use the newest hip preservation techniques pioneered within the last 30 years.

Why Choose Us?

Precise Imaging for More Accurate Diagnosis

We closely partner with the Cincinnati Children’s Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, one of the largest pediatric radiology facilities in the country.

• This partnership provides us with access to CT scans, MRIs and the latest software so we can get 3D imaging and make precise measurements. We have the ability to perform live assessments using a dynamic MRI, which allows us to capture and view the motion of the hip joint.
• The medical center’s 3T MRI (3-Tesla) scanner offers the most sophisticated imaging technology resulting in shorter scan times and producing images with the highest clarity available today, often without the need for an arthrogram.

Commitment to Improving Quality

Quality improvement is an ongoing part of our team’s process. We continually look at our procedures and analyze what’s working, what’s not, and what can be done better.

• We have a surgical site infection protocol to limit perioperative complications including infection, the need for blood transfusions, and other complications such as blood clots and pulmonary embolism.
• Together with our Anesthesia Pain Team, we are constantly looking at pain management and opportunities for improvement.
• We have a program in place that involves close monitoring of our patients with cerebral palsy for signs of hip dislocation and/or dysplasia.

Surgical Expertise

Our team has significant experience in the surgical treatment of hip conditions including both open and minimally invasive procedures.

• Our entire hip preservation team is made up of orthopaedic surgeons who are board-certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. They have additional fellowship training in the areas of pediatric orthopaedic surgery and adult reconstruction and hip preservation, as well as special training in open surgical techniques, arthroscopic techniques, joint replacement and tumor / oncology.
• Our team has seen more than 10,000 patients of all ages, from infants to adults, to date. 
• Our breadth of experience allows us to concentrate not just on surgical techniques of the hip, but which techniques work best at each age and for each patient. Our surgeons are also involved in research that advances new techniques and improves quality of care. This includes new techniques that are less invasive, such as guided growth, and new approaches that decrease infections and other complications.
• We offer a full range of hip arthroscopy procedures by themselves or with other procedures such as a femoral derotational osteotomy or with periacetabular osteotomy (PAO). We perform hip arthroscopy in young patients before they reach skeletal maturity, as well as in adults up to 45 years old.

Pioneering Treatment with Research

Our care team members not only see patients, but also perform basic and clinical research. That means we are constantly seeking ways to improve treatments and identify new therapies for our patients. This commitment to research and innovation directly affects how we evaluate and treat hip conditions. Our research efforts include the following:

• We have collaborated with Anesthesia to improve pain control and decrease hospital stays for our patients, which has resulted in increased patient comfort and reduced costs.
• The members of our team participate in national study groups, clinical research, and fellow, resident and medical student training. We are focused on outcomes research, which helps us understand the end result of certain health care interventions and practices. We are also part of several multicenter studies.
• Research is underway that is centered on tissue engineering, which aims to improve clinical procedures for repairing damaged tissues and organs. This is a collaboration between Cincinnati Children’s and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
• We collect outcomes data on selected cases through our hip outcomes registry with our dedicated research coordinator. This data is used to help guide decisions, actions, and outcomes at the point of care. 
• We are members of the International Perthes Study Group, a group of surgeons and researchers dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease. Our experts also treat complex neuromuscular hip conditions (cerebral palsy, myelomeningocele) and those associated with skeletal dysplasias.

Volumes and Outcomes

Our team performs a large number of complex hip preservation procedures with good outcomes and complication rates below those recorded nationally.

• We evaluate more than 2,000 patients for hip conditions each year.
• We average 200 cases per year with one-third being complex cases in young adults age 14 and older.

Care for Newborns to Adults

We provide care for patients ranging in age from newborn up to 45 years old. Many hip conditions start in childhood. We have expertise in treating those conditions throughout a patient’s life. Since we continue care up to age 45, we can follow our patients as they grow. 

Many adults with hip challenges actually have a childhood hip condition. We have both background in your pediatric condition and knowledge of how that condition can look in an adult which gives us a unique and valuable perspective with our adult patients.