A little more than a week ago, Shirley Roulstone was in such severe pain she was almost willing to lose her leg to ease her suffering.
An avid football player, Ms Roulstone’s troubles began about five years ago when she started getting hip and leg pain. Three years ago, the pain escalated even further and by December last year, she was in agony.
“I don’t know if it was one specific thing that caused it. I played football and soccer all my life and I’ve had a number of injuries over the years,” said Ms Roulstone as she awaited a follow-up appointment with her surgeon Dr. Ivan Wong at the Cayman Orthopaedic Group clinic on Friday, 1 March. Three days earlier, she had undergone arthroscopic surgery on a torn labrum – the soft elastic tissue that follows the outside rim of the socket of the hip joint.
“By December [2012], I got an appointment with Dr. [Frank] Smith [of Cayman Orthopaedic] and told him how much pain I was in and asked what could be done. I said, ‘If you have to take my leg off, do it, I just can’t deal with it anymore,” she said. “I have a very high pain threshold. I can grin and bear it, but by December, I was at my wit’s end.”
An X-ray and MRI confirmed the torn labrum, as well as arthritis of the hip. “It was a pretty good tear,” she said.
On 26 February, visiting surgeon Dr. Wong performed minimally-invasive surgery on her torn labrum on her left hip, repairing the tear and reattaching the tissue to the hip. He also pared down excess bone at the hip bone socket and top of the femur, which had caused the tear. Because the surgery was minimally invasive, it lasted 50 minutes and she was released from the hospital the same day.
“There was overgrowth of the socket and of the femur. With both these things, when you bring your foot up, they will pinch against each other and that causes the labrum tear,” said Dr. Wong, who visits Grand Cayman twice a year.
According to Dr. Wong, who has carried out similar surgeries on patients from the Cayman Islands at his practice in Canada, this is the first time he has done arthroscopic surgery on a hip in Cayman.
During an arthroscopic procedure, a camera attached to a fibreoptic light source is inserted into a joint through a tiny incision and shows a picture of the inside of the joint on a television monitor. To aid visibility, fluid is pumped through the joint, which also serves to clear debris from the joint. One or more other incisions are then made to insert instruments to treat a variety of conditions, such as a shaver to cut away excess bone or tissue or sutures.
Just three days after her surgery, the only sign of it are two tiny holes and a bruise on Ms Roulstone’s upper thigh. She is walking with crutches and during her follow up, Dr. Wong fitted her with a temporary leg brace. She will undergo physiotherapy during the next few weeks.
But, just in case she wants a reminder of her surgery, Dr. Wong supplied her with a DVD video of her own operation – something he provides all his surgical patients.
Dr. Wong expects her to make a full recovery from the torn labrum, although she will still suffer from arthritis, which cannot be treated with surgery.
The surgeon is not only familiar with sports injuries from treating patients over the years. His own sports injury is what turned him onto medicine. He was a gymnast for 16 years and competed nationally and internationally, but an Achilles tendon tear ended his competitive career.
Instead, he focused his attention on elite athletes – treating athletes and preventing injuries.
Related Videos
