The American Hip Institute recently opened its doors as the first clinic in the U.S. to specialize exclusively in hip injuries. Its mission is “to serve as a resource to surgeons and their patients; to educate, innovate and offer the most advanced and comprehensive treatment options for injuries of the hip joint.”
Benjamin Domb, M.D., founder and medical director, talked to OTW about why having a center like this is so important.
He said, “There has been an unmistakable trend in medicine over last 100 years towards specialization. We have seen an evolution of two parallel fields, hip arthroplasty and hip preservation. It can get confusing for patients who just know they have a hip problem, and do not know whether they need a hip arthroplasty or a hip preservation surgery. They often bounce around between specialists until the right diagnosis and treatment is found. The goal is to take a comprehensive approach to the hip joint to solve this.”
The American Hip Research Foundation, which is the research affiliate of the American Hip Institute and located in the same facility, was founded by Domb 10 years ago to promote hip research and education. Today the American Hip Institute fellowship trains three fellows each year.
Domb said, “Having the foundation on the same site as our clinical practice allows researchers to work more closely with patients, enabling tight communication between researchers, patients and their doctors.”
“I hope the American Hip Institute is a resource to other orthopedic surgeons across the country who have challenging cases, and that we can work collaboratively to help patients get the treatment they need a lot quicker.”
Domb and the American Hip Institute perfected the technique for arthroscopic labral reconstruction in the hip called the “Knotless Pull-Through Technique.” He and his colleagues were also the first in the U.S. to perform outpatient robotic hip replacement, which has led to a 94% reduction in errors in implantation according to subsequent studies.
Recently they just published the “Minimum 5-Year Outcomes of Arthroscopic Hip Labral Reconstruction…” where they confirmed that hip arthroscopy with segmental labral reconstruction results in significant improvement in patient-reported outcomes.
Right now they are working on a predictive algorithm calculator for individual patients’ prognosis with both nonsurgical and surgical treatment, and are studying platelet-rich plasma injections for tendinopathies of the abductors and gluteus medius.
“I see individualized predictive modeling as the next reiteration of evidence-based medicine. Currently when a patient considering surgery asks us ‘what is the success rate?’, we have to cite data from studies done on other patients. But what our patients really want to know is their own individual likelihood of success. We aim to create a predictive model that will calculate the individual’s prognosis with hip arthroscopy, and we hope it sets a precedent that can be used in other fields.”
