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ST. CROIX — The Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center (JFL) can now add anterior total hip replacement to the numerous services it provides, a press release the medical facility issued late Thursday had made known. On Wednesday, January 20, Dr. Jeffrey Chase, MD and a JFL surgical team successfully performed St. Croix’s first anterior total hip replacement surgery on a 73-year-old female.

The highly specialized procedure took about two hours, and the patient has been doing well, JFL said. She walked on the first day following surgery and was home by the third day. She had very little pain after the surgery, and had the following comments: “I was very pleased with the service and was so impressed with the staff. Friendliness, cleanliness and hi-tech equipment…JFL has made great strides in bringing A-one care to the Virgin Islands.”

Anterior Hip Table used to perform hip procedure.

Along with specialized training, a special operating room table is required for the total hip procedure as the leg has to be placed into a specific position safely. MEDACTA, a Swiss-based world-leader in orthopedic manufacturing, provided the Anterior Minimally Invasive Surgery (AMIS) table at no cost to JFL for the surgery. A representative from MEDACTA who, along with Dr. Chase helped train the JFL staff, was present for the procedure. He said it was a privilege for him to be at JFL.

“The whole purpose is to improve patient satisfaction with the process. Recovery is getting the patient back to their family to do what they did before, whether it’s taking walks with the grandkids, or whatever they want, and the JFL staff was wonderful. They were all very focused, and I can tell they’re very committed to their patients and their jobs,” said MEDACTA representative Dave Bozman.

The anterior procedure is different from the traditional hip replacement which uses a posterior approach. With the anterior hip method, the surgery is performed through a small incision on the front of the hip and no muscles are cut. Using the AMIS technique provides a number of benefits:

Shorter recovery period
No restrictions on activity or leg or hip position
Less pain
Less likelihood for patient to have a limp since the muscles are not cut
Less (almost no) risk of dislocation

The anterior total hip surgery works well for almost any total hip replacement candidate, and JFL is now able to offer this minimally invasive alternative.

“I am pleased to be able the offer the patients on St. Croix the excellent care they deserve without having to travel to St. Thomas or off island,” said Dr. Chase. “I am committed to the mission of JFL and to providing the St. Croix community with orthopedic excellence, whether it be the total hip, total knee or other procedures I now routinely perform at JFL.

“Thanks to the training we did and their professionalism, the staff made my job easier; performing flawlessly despite the fact it was the first time they had actually seen the surgery live. It is amazing to see the benefits of this particular procedure. Many of my patients come in the week after their hip replacement with only a cane, if anything, to help them walk. This particular patient had a very bad hip and should feel a tremendous amount of relief immediately.”

Dr. Chase has been performing the anterior procedure on St. Thomas for a number of years through his practice at Virgin Islands Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, located on St Croix in Queens Quarter, and in St. Thomas in the Paragon Building. He has been performing total knee replacements on St Croix for over a year.

For more information on the anterior total hip surgery or other orthopedic procedures, contact Dr. Chase at (340) 692-5000, or viortho.com. You can also contact JFL Public Information Officer Erica Parsons at (340) 778-6311 ext. 2913.