MicroHip

The dogma of "major surgery, major incisions" ended with major changes in the understanding of human biology and the growing awareness that every incision not only induces trauma, but also may lead to permanent destruction of tissues. This not only causes greater postoperative pain and increases hospitalisation and rehabilitation times, but also may sometimes result in a significant loss of fine motor control. Of crucial significance is not just the length of the cut, but also and, most importantly, the type of structures affected. Muscles and tendons are undoubtedly the most important structures in this respect. Some, like the abductor muscles—particularly the gluteus medius and medius—play a central role in various body functions, such as perception. Thus, damage to nerves supplying these structures should be minimised or completely avoided.

An ideal minimally invasive approach should not only spare muscles and tendons altogether, but should also lie in an internervous plane. In other words, there should be no nerve braches passing through the plane of access to the surgical site. This is the difference between the MicroHip technique developed by us and the OCM technique practiced by Röthinger in Munich. In the MicroHip procedure, we use a short segment of the Smith-Peterson approach to the hip joint, which is located in the internervous plane between the tensor fascia lata and rectus/sartorius muscles. The OCM technique, on the other hand, uses an approach passing between the gluteus medius and tensor facia lata muscles. This plane corresponds to a section of the Watson-Jones