Double Hip Replacement Patient Walks Hours After Surgery

Willa Shearer of Fayetteville became the first patient in Arkansas to benefit from a combination of new hip surgery techniques at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) that allowed her to stay awake and walk within hours of two total hip replacements. 

The Sept. 6 and 7 surgeries marked another first for UAMS orthopaedic surgeon Richard Evans, M.D., who is providing the latest knee and hip procedures available in the United States. 

Unlike other hip replacements, which have a lifespan of about 20 years, Shearer’s should last the rest of her life, said Evans, who is chief of Adult Reconstruction and director of the Center for Hip and Knee Surgery at UAMS.

Three days after surgery, Shearer was walking with the aid of a walker and should be at full strength within a few weeks,

“I’m ready to hit the golf course, do some traveling and play with my guns,” said Shearer, an avid golfer and member of the Single Action Shooting Society, an international organization that preserves and promotes the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting.

“Mrs. Shearer is the first patient to benefit from a melding of techniques that have given her two new hips using a minimally invasive procedure and metal-on-metal parts that will serve her the rest of her life,” Evans said.  

Read More...

UAMS urologist Graham Greene, M.D., shows Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D., how the graspers on the da Vinci robotic surgery system work.

New UAMS Surgical Robot Debuts for Demonstration

As the medical student manipulated the controls with both hands while peering into the viewer, the action goes on a few feet away under a bright surgical light as tiny pincers extending from robotic arms make minute, coordinated movements.

“Can you pick up the coin?” asks UAMS Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D., as he looks on.

A split second later the robotic arm moves in closer to a plate filed with plastic spires and other objects. The pincer extends and clamps onto a dime wedged in among the plastic obstacles, pulling it up.

“That’s amazing,” Wilson said, echoing the sentiments of many others who got a chance to see the Sept. 21 demonstration of the newly arrived da Vinci Surgical System, a robotic surgical tool that will improve surgical efficiency and patient recovery when it goes to work. The first procedure to use the new tool at UAMS was scheduled for the week of Sept. 24, with a surgery conducted by Rabii Madi, assistant professor of urology in the UAMS College of Medicine.

“We believe this system will enhance the quality and efficiency of many surgical procedures,” said Graham Greene, M.D., associate professor in the UAMS College of Medicine and holder of the Robert Woods Bass Chair in Genitourinary Oncology at UAMS. “It’s minimally invasive, so it will decrease the incision needed for a procedure, which in turn reduces the time it takes a patient to recover and be ready to leave the hospital.”

Read More...

LATE BREAKING NEWS
	$2.9 Million Grant to Develop Early Literacy Sites for UAMS Head Start Shoppers Receive 20 Percent Discount at More Than 200 Arkansas Shops with ACRC Partners Card UAMS Names Ludwig Department Chairman of Imaging and Radiation Sciences Marathon Runner Honors Friend, Raises Money for ACRC

LINKS OF INTEREST
	The surgery of tomorrow, today.  Read about robotic surgery at UAMS. LASIK Surgery Keeps Your Eye on the Ball Lose Weight with UAMS. Try Out Our Interactive Tools Watch Us Grow! Construction Accelerates on Campus Having Trouble Getting Pregnant? Travel Medicine Consulting Services and Vaccinations How to Order Your Cure Breast Cancer License Plate UAMS' Here's to Your Health Radio Broadcasts with Dr. T. Glenn Pait

View Last Month's Newsletter...

View Past Newsletters...