Reply To: THR = Running – Surgeons Response

[Petemeads]

Great to see you back in the fold Rob! Not done Cardiff but I have run Pontypool, and got a pretty decent time there. Since our last correspondence I have been looking at specific devices and their failures and it is interesting that the Exeter cemented hip has failures in fatigue fracture of the stem – in inactive, heavy people who probably hardly use their hips, and the Furlong Evolution device had a couple of peculiar failures where the ceramic ball had worn through the polythene liner and the titanium cup – but Michael Rix on this site has run sub-16 minute 5k and raced triathons for at least 7 years on one of these devices. I personally know an inactive lady who broke a ceramic hip doing nothing particular, and heard of a titanium stem breaking whilst sitting. Shit happens, as they say, but it does not seem to happen so much in the active community. Best of luck going forward – I have just come back from a glorious couple of days in Snowdonia, walking up big hills and waking up muscles that don’t get used on the road, and despite aggravating my sciatica do not regret a minute of the temporary pain of recovery as a price to be paid for a great time in the hills with my son. We are all experiments, it would be good if the profession could collate our experiences to allow others to base their decisions on good data rather than hearsay/anecdote. I have recorded everything on Garmin since 2014, walking, biking, running, mountaineering and I guess others will have done so as well. Surgeons need to realise just how good their devices can be in the proper hands…