Anyone had one? Anyone know people who have had one and ride bikes? Anyone got any other opinions based on any experience or in true singletrackworld style based on spurious opinions?

Birmingham hip ?

mate of ours had his done aged about 40 – he's done a fair bit of (road) biking since then without any probs that I'm aware of

how long has it lasted, do you know? I'm only 36 so surgeon obviously would prefer me to die of a heart attack or boredom than wear out a hip.

he's only about 46 now, so not v long yet
(edit: FWIW, he's a doc with an interest in sports medicine – I assume he thought about pretty hard it before geting it done but haven't discussed it with him)

sounds like exactly the type of person I would love to hear the opinions of, not seeing the surgeon for a month or so but would be great if you could point the guy in the direction of this thread or give him my email address.

Metal on metal hip prostheses (MOM) has been something of a 'research interest' of mine for the past three years or so. This has included both kinds of MOM replacements including Totals (i.e. traditional total tip with full femoral stem and pevis cup) and resurfacing. Although, most of my work has been looking at the body's reaction to the bio-materials used in MOM devices.

Both offer huge theoretical and actual advantages over the older style metal-on-polyethylene hips in younger and high activity patients.
Although a little out of my knowledge base there has also been advances in ceramic hips which in some cases *may* theoretically out perform MOM devices – a lot of this will depend on your surgeons experience, but may be worth asking about.

The idea of the resurfacing is interesting as it allows for the fact that younger people will potentially need a revision of the hip due to wear over time. A resurfacing spares more of the bone in the femur allowing this should it become necessary. Resurfacing also has an extra advantage of incorporating a larger diameter bearing surface (in most devices) which reduces the risk of dislocation – especially useful in young and active recipients.
There are however drawbacks in resurfacing techniques – most surround the lack of long term evidence of resurfacing devices, and the extra stresses they place on the bone (although more of a problem in older patients) so it is worth asking about your surgeons experience of them.

A Birmingham hip was certainly the device of choice for Floyd Landis so there is probably something in it for cyclists.

email is in profile if i havn't explained any of this particularly well – the laboratory based research of this just happens to be a personal interest – your surgeon will know far more 'real world' info about it than myself.

From my own limited knowledge it seems to criticism of hip resurfacing is the fact they dont last as long, however the point is they are for more active younger people and allow further work later, would that be fair. I want to try and gather some info about all this for my next hospital appointment. As background I've had two arthroscopies (one on each hip)for FAI and torn cartilage and am still not able to ride a bike so want to start thinking of other options (not that I actually want any more ops).

Absolutely, there are so many confounding factors that simply saying 'they don't last as long' isn't really true if you consider the subset of patients they are frequently used in. At least when they do wear, there is a better chance of a more successful revision.

On the one hand you would expect better outcomes in sports such as cycling due to the fairly low-impact nature of the sport. However, some reports suggest this doesn't really make a difference – people have run marathons on resurfacing devices.

Be carefull which information you read – there is afterall alot of money in hip arthroplasty.
There are many variations on the MOM theme, and most reports which give good evidence either way are based on 1st generation MOM devices which came into use in the 70's. Some of these devices really did last for ages. Alot failed due to poor metallurgy. (i'm talking about total hips here not resurfacing – but bear with me…)
Based on 1st generation successes (and failures) the current second-generation MOM's were developed (these include resurfacing). 2nd gens' have much better characteristics and (should) operate as a metal-fluid-metal bearing (the fluid being provided by your body), which is important as this reduces wear.
So in some respects (i.e. wear and longevity) you may consider MOM totals and MOM resurfacing in the same way – in other respects they differ in how they place loads on the existing bone and the biomechanics of their range of movement.

It's a tricky decision for the 'patient/surgeon team' to make. After all an active person can put a device through around one to three million loading cycles per year, with forces which at times exceed six times body weight. Add to that the precarious range of movements at the hip and it's a wonder they ever work at all – let alone worrying about the few which fail.

Sorry, i get quite excited about this kind of thing and am prone to waffeling.

I'm sold, I'll take two please.

I don't know how relevant this is to you, my Wife was recently considering a total hip replacement, but it was decided that as she is only 33 and will therefore need subsequent operations it would be better for her to have a PAO, whereby they break the pelvis in 3 places and rescrew it in better alignment.

This was 5 months ago and she is still on crutches as the bone is growing slower than anticipated, but pain-wise she is in a much better place even at this early stage.

She made the surgeon aware that she wants to get back to a fully active lifestyle.

a-a – I don't see your email address in profile

email address should now be in profile

I would do a search for this on some of the more road bike orientated formums as I have seen the subject come up there a lot, and many riders are either young and keen to get the problem sorted, or older and have had replacement joint for some time.

Try the CTC, cycling weekly, and any others you can think of. Many of them are connected to road cycling magazines if trying to track them down. Mostly I have seem surprisingly good things on hip and knee replacements, most people seem very pleased with the outcome and continue cycling.

will do cheers, road biking is my one true love anyway, although I last saw my bike thrown up the back of the garden in a fit of temper a few weeks ago….. its either been nicked or the mrs has put it in the shed!!

probably not much help, but at least it's factual

my mum, 82, in pain, very limited mobility (getting up out of chair slowly, crabbing whilst walking etc etc), VERY UNHAPPY, hip replaced, no pain, much more mobile, considerably happier.