Top Surgeon Operates at Wairarapa Hospital

Wairarapa Hospital today welcomes visiting Professor and internationally recognised joint replacement expert, Guido Grappiolo, to work with local Orthopaedic Surgeon Ian Denholm. It is the first time an orthopaedic professor has consulted on a patient at Wairarapa Hospital and for a specialist of this calibre to visit a small country hospital is rare.

“Wairarapa Hospital is extremely lucky to have the assistance of this renowned specialist hip and knee replacement surgeon for a particularly complex procedure, an ‘arthrodesis take down’. The Wairarapa patient concerned, Mervyn Herbert would normally have had to undergo his operation at a specialist unit outside of the region – but instead he is benefiting from the skills of the ‘best in the business’ right here in Wairarapa Hospital,” says Wairarapa Hospital orthopaedic surgeon Dr Ian Denholm.

Professor Guido Grappiolo is visiting New Zealand to take a two-day hip surgery ‘Masterclass’ in Queenstown. He has literally made a flying visit to Wairarapa to assist with Mervyn Herbert’s hip operation, “The Professor is on an extremely tight schedule but he has rescheduled his flights to spend a few hours in surgery at Wairarapa Hospital,” says Dr Ian Denholm. “Some of the top orthopaedic surgeons may have only undertaken this particularly procedure maybe ten or eleven times. Guido has completed around seventy of them – there just isn’t anyone better.”

Earlier this year Ian Denholm toured some major hospitals in Italy, Spain and France assisting Professor Grappiolo with a procedure at his own orthopaedic department in Azienda Opadaliera Santa Corona, Italy. “Whilst I was at Professor Grappiolo’s unit I showed him x-rays of this very difficult hip surgery problem and he was able to advise. Mervyn has undergone hip surgery many years ago - his hip was fused following an infection in the joint. This solution used to be common and was effective in the short term but impacts on both spine and knees in later life. Mervyn has been experiencing a good deal of pain in recent months, although he has been continuing to work.”

Mervyn was referred to the Wairarapa Hospital Orthopaedic Department earlier this year for back and knee pain. “This operation today is the first part of a long-term solution for him. The hip will be taken apart and the joint replaced with an artificial one. It is very complex procedure. Usually it is possible to orient a replacement joint with ‘landmarks’ or scouring created by the bones, but, with a formerly fused hip this is impossible. Mervyn may need some further, less complex surgery at a later date which we will be able to complete at Wairarapa Hospital and he will certainly need several months of physiotherapy, but he should soon be able to move his hip normally for the first time in forty years,” said Dr Denholm.

“Both Professor Guido and his sponsors, Zimmer, a company who make artificial joints, have been extremely accommodating. I am delighted to have this opportunity to work with such a renowned international expert and look forward to seeing Mervyn up and about in a few days time.”
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Professor Grappiolo has never been to Wairarapa before although he visited New Zealand two years ago. He is accompanied by Steve Flaughty a medical equipment specialist from Zimmer who have sponsored the professor’s New Zealand visit. “It has taken several months of compliance work with the NZ Medical Council to bring Professor Grappiolo to Wairarapa Hospital to undertake this operation. There have only been a handful of these complex operations performed in New Zealand over the last ten years and there are only a couple of surgeons here who perform them,” said Steve. “Guido is very impressed with the facilities here, they are excellent. His unit in Italy is a 12 metre by 13 metre area combining everything from theatre to tea room! The unit would undertake 1600 joint replacements a year, that’s about 6-8 each day. The Wairarapa Hospital theatre and equipment has everything he needs and, as is usual in these complex cases I have brought extra equipment into theatre.”

In the last financial year, June 2006 to July 2007, Wairarapa Hospital performed 124 standard hip operations and 16 patients requiring specialist orthopaedic surgery were treated outside the region. A standard hip operation costs around $14,000. To treat a patient at a hospital outside the region incurs additional transport and hospital accommodation costs.

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