Hip surgery with extension unit

Hip operations have long since become commonplace. According to the Institute for Quality Assurance and Research in Health Care (AQUA), 180,000 patients have a hip joint replacement each year – in Germany alone. And this number is rising from year to year. Some have this prosthesis installed for the first time, while for others the old artificial joint requires replacement. To minimize the impact on the muscles and in the interest of speedy recovery, minimally invasive surgery has been used for the main part, in both situations, for several years now.

Hip replacement surgery is on the agenda at the Frauenfeld Cantonal Hospital in Switzerland, too, with about two hundred such operations scheduled there each year. Dr. Paul-Michael Bodler, Chief of Surgery in the Orthopedics Department, performs  the majority of these interventions with the help of an extension unit. It is attached to the operating table; the patient’s feet and calves are secured comfortably in special. extension boots. The advantages during surgery: The special struts and the MIS-hip-device for the extension unit make it possible to move the legs independent of each other and to rotate, flex, abduct or adduct them – accurate right down to the last degree. Thus the leg is put precisely in the position needed for each step in the surgery. A thickly padded counter-traction post ensures that the patient rests securely on the operating table during every movement of the lower extremities.