Dr Sciortino is one of a handful of Surgeons who performed “Super Path” replacement surgery.

I am a 66 year old male in Fair physical shape but have always been over weight, I will admit I keep lower body in fairly good shape walking and outside lawn work. In the fall of 2012 I was told arthritis had ruined my right hip and it needed replacement then, I planned to work three more years so I delayed surgery. I was taking large amount of glucosamine and Aleve daily, the discomfort was always with me and when I rode in van for long periods I had to grab the door when getting out and stand until pain went away before I could walk. Sometimes at night the bed was to uncomfortable so I would sleep in recliner. Now as you can imagine I talked to friends who had traditional hip replacement and heard about the restrictions, week of fairly severe pain and nearly month to get to 75% activity. I also had two friends who did the posterior surgery and I talked to them and yes the pain was less and recovery was a little faster. As you can imagine this caused me worry and stress, no one likes pain and being limited in activity if you are somewhat active. Late summer 2015 my wife seen a local TV program that Dr Sciortino was on and explaining the new “Super Path” hip replacement, thank God she recorded it. That was when I first looked it up on internet and found out Dr Sciortino is one of a handful of Surgeons who performed “Super Path” replacement surgery. An article that as I recall came from the American Medical journal touted “Super Path” as the least invasive hip replacement surgery. I made an appointment to see Dr Sciortino, he told me due to cartilage and bone wear my right leg was now short by half an inch, but he could correct that. He then explained “Super Path”, the key points were 1. No cautionary restrictions after surgery, example: do not bend past 90 degrees or cross legs. 2. Most patients are up and walking same day of surgery and out of hospital next day. 3. Recovery is half the time of other surgeries (as long as you comply with therapy). 4. Incision does not cut major muscle or ligaments and scar is on back or leg and about 4 inches. He explained the joint he would use and showed it to me and I was also candidate for “Spinal Block” versus traditional anesthesia.

Since I would retire on 31 December 2015 I booked surgery on 3 February 2016, I have had three surgeries prior in my life (no joint replacement) and none we easy or quick recoveries, so my stress level was high. I arrived at St Luke’s hospital (the very best Hospital in the USA) at scheduled time and checked in. I went to pre surgery room and anesthesiologist explained spinal block and I opted for it (I will tell you it is 10 times better the regular anesthesia). Went into surgery at 1 PM, was in recovery room at 3 PM when I woke up, it was like waking up from sleep with no memory of surgery at all and I felt good! I was able to text on cell phone immediately, not groggy from anesthesia! That day I started in bed therapy moving leg, the next morning early out of bed and in chair. Shortly thereafter I walked with walker several times, was taught how to maneuver steps and was released at about 3:30 PM and went home. I took ZERO pain medications in hospital, was given a bottle of pain pills to take home and only used 4 and that was to get to sleep. The actual pain and hip discomfort was minimal, the day I got home I went to church that evening. I used a walked to get around house two days, used a cane for approximately one day then walked. By day three I was getting over 4,000 steps (Fitbit tracked) and a few slights of steps. Of course the toughest part was therapy, many times my eyes watered from the strain on muscles that were doing things they had not done for years. Super Bowl Sunday (4 days after surgery) I was in charge of food service at our church “Tail Gate” party, I drove to church and supervised staff serving 280 hamburgers, 120 hot dogs and all the fixings. At the end of first full week I was getting 10,000 steps in so I started to walk the dogs outside, did a mile first time and now I am back to normal doing up to 4 miles. I cannot believe how fast the recovery was, with no restrictions, and as I stated the pain was minimal. I now walk without any limp, I do not have to hang onto the Van door when I get out to wait for stiffness to reside. I saw Dr Sciortino on 3 March and he said the joint was healing up perfect and everything looked good, I had great movement and the leg length was corrected, I am not limited in any activity at this point.

So in closing here is how I will quantify what I am writing here, my neighbor is a Doctor at Cardinal Glennon in St Louis, his wife is an RN, the neighbor on the other side she is a retired RN. Both were totally amazed at my recovery, they kept bringing up movement and activity restrictions and I explained they did not apply to “Super Path”. My in home therapist said she was amazed at how fast I moved through the therapy, she said I was the second “Super Path” patient she had serviced and we complete therapy in less than half the normal time. My Neighbors and the therapist are sold on “Super Path” surgery! My reason for this long message is to tell you if you or family member have a hip needing replacement check into “Super Path”, amazing quick recovery and I had very little discomfort. Dr Scioritino is a great surgeon and has an excellent staff, St Luke’s hospital is rated one of the top 50 in USA and I can tell you it is wonderful. I hope this helps one person avoid unnecessary discomfort and long recovery time.

- Bill (Caseyville, Il)