Governor Doyle likes to tout Wisconsin as being on the cutting edge of medical research and his hip surgery just may be an example of that.
Rather than have the traditional hip replacement surgery, the 61-year old governor had hip resurfacing. It's relatively new procedure that doesn't destroy as much of the upper thigh bone.
The governor's surgeon, Dr. Richard Illgen, co-director of the UW Madison Joint Replacement Program says while hip replacement is the "gold standard", the resurfacing procedure was just approved in the US by the Food and Drug Administration last May. However, he says it's been done in Europe for at least a decade.
It's so new there's still debate over who's an optimal candidate for the procedure. While everyone is different, Dr. Illgen says resurfacing is usually for young, highly active people who have good bone strength and have no allergies to metal.
As for the governor, Dr. Illgen says he may be in the hospital for a couple of days to begin physical therapy. Then he'll need crutches for about two or three weeks followed by a cane for a few more.
And yes, the governor should eventually be able to play in a game of pick-up basketball.
To get more information on hip replacement and hip resurfacing go to: www.uwhealth.org/jointreplacement .
Or you can go to a website the UW-Madison Joint Replacement Program helped develop where you can click through a virtual hip operation. That site is: www.edheads.org .
