It was very interesting to watch the doctors present from the doctors perspective but it is quite different coming from our side. When we look at it as OUR bodies they are cutting open, it changes the whole view. The following is my view as a patient. Vicky This overview of the conference I attended in Belgium, June 25 – 28, 2008 are notes that I took during the presentations and sessions as well as my own personal opinions and thoughts on the subject. It is in no way scientific data. To summarize the conference in two sentences, I will quote Mr. McMinn, one of the inventors of the BHR (Birmingham Hip Resurfacing device):Bad results of Resurfacings are the result of badly done Resurfacing – Derek McMinn Also I will quote Dr. Koen DeSmet a surgeon that has done more hip resurfacings than the majority of surgeons in the world. resurfacing works well, but is . – Koen DeSmet McMinns quote was mentioned on several occasions throughout the conference and mainly has to do with the technical difficulty of resurfacing in general. It was clear to me again belgium email providers after attending my third orthopedic conference that the above statement is SO true and was reinforced in several of the sessions during this conference. It appears the many problems that exist today with 
have to do with the surgeon and technique. As with Real Estate the three important factors being location, location, location, with hip resurfacing it is experience, experience, experience AND I will add to that
My thoughts: I know many newer patients that post on the Yahoo Surface Hippy Message board and choose to go to newer surgeons or end up having no choice due to financial matters or insurance limitations get upset by those of us that keep repeating the importance of picking a surgeon with experience. I wish these patients would just understand that many of us take hours out of our every day lives to HELP people. Misguiding someone to a newer inexperienced surgeon is NOT my definition of helping someone. When the question is asked, well then, who will be in a doctors first 100? I will tell you who, those that do not care to take the time to research alternatives. Those like the guy I ran into that was scheduled for a THR and when I told him about resurfacing his response was that his doctor did not do them and he trusted his doctor. The gal that posted a week or so ago saying she was having a THR in a few days and wanted to talk to others that had been through it. I emailed her offline and no matter what I told her, she was not going to postpone her surgery that Monday, she was just going to let her surgeon give her a THR. A surgeon that never even told her what resurfacing even was and she was in her 30s! Well those are the patients that can end up being in a doctors first 100, the ones that go into a doctors office and just will listen to what they are told and end up with what they get. Like the poor woman many of us met at De Smets brunch in SF. She could barely walk with crutches because the Hemi-prosthesis with a large femoral stem device her doctor had placed inside her, De Smet flat out told her he would never use a device like that on anyone unless it was a woman in her late 90s that he knew was going to be wheelchair bound anyway and had very few years left to live. This woman was in her 40s and was there to get a consult with De Smet. Last I heard, she is going to go back to the same doctor that did that to her in the first place to fix it, if you can believe that!As far as I am concerned, those that take the time to seek out information and find their way to the surface hippy message board or the referenced web site or email me offline for help, well they deserve to know the truth. Not MY truth but the truth even all of the top surgeons speak. There IS a learning curve with hip resurfacing. HRA is a very different procedure than a THR, completely different. Now onto what I learned at the conference and my notes. Dr. Amstutz – Technique – Crucial Overall the majority of the problems found in hip resurfacing are surgeon related. Cup malpositioning, femoral component placement off, can cause impingement, neck fractures, femoral neck thinning
