CAMAGÜEY.- A medical team from the Eduardo Agramonte Piña Pediatric Hospital, in Camagüey, performed a surgical intervention on a patient with a snapping hip, this time using the minimal access route, being the first time that the technique has been used in the country. , in operations for this condition.

The procedure on the right hip of the teenager Raikell Enmanuel González López, 14 years old, was led by the experienced Camagüey's doctor Alejandro Álvarez López, a specialist in orthopedics and traumatology, along with other young specialists in this branch of medicine, to guarantee the learning and continuity of new generations.

Dr. Alejandro Álvarez López recently won the Annual Health Award with the book Primary osteoarthritis of the knee, a conservative approach to the joint; only one of its kind in the country. Photos: Leandro Pérez Pérez/ Adelante

According to Álvarez López, minimal access has several advantages such as the outpatient method, which entails fewer complications than open surgeries and allows the patient to begin walking faster, in addition to saving medical material on internal and external sutures.

The snapping hip is generally operated on openly, with an incision of 7 to 10 centimeters depending on the patient; in this case, the endoscopic route (when it is outside the joint) allows the same procedure to be done but through small incisions less than a centimeter, which favors aesthetics and avoids large scars.

This pathology, also known as coxa saltans, is characterized by the sensation of a clicking sound in the hip and is more common in females, with a higher incidence in adolescents between 14 and 17 years old. It requires surgery if conservative treatment is not effective after two months, although approximately 90 percent of patients respond well to these measures, which mainly consist of rehabilitation exercises, the use of pain relievers and changes in lifestyle.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez