Orthopedic Surgery

South Texas Health System Edinburg offers comprehensive orthopedic care, including surgical and non-surgical treatment options. Our staff includes specialists in these areas:

• Traumatic orthopedic injuries
• Hip and knee surgery
• Sports medicine

An experienced team of orthopedic surgeons, nurses and staff perform hundreds of consultations, surgeries and other treatments each year with an emphasis on positive patient outcomes.

Traumatic Orthopedic Injuries

Our trauma service offers expertise in management of patients who have sustained orthopedic trauma and post-traumatic complications. Special emphasis is placed on the team approach and surgical management of complex orthopedic trauma as well as post traumatic reconstruction, including:

• Complex open and closed fractures and dislocations
• Blunt and penetrating bone, joint, muscle and tendon injuries
• Bone healing complications, including nonunions, malunions and infections

Hip and Knee Surgery

A total hip replacement is a surgical procedure where the diseased cartilage and bone of the hip joint is surgically replaced with artificial materials. Total hip replacements are performed most commonly because of progressively severe arthritis in the hip joint. The most common type of arthritis leading to total hip replacement is degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis) of the hip joint. This type of arthritis is generally seen with aging, congenital abnormality of the hip joint, or prior trauma to the hip joint.

Other conditions leading to total hip replacement include bony fractures of the hip joint and death (necrosis) of the hip bone. Hip bone necrosis can be caused by a hip fracture, drugs and a range of diseases and conditions.

The progressively intense chronic pain together with impairment of daily function including walking, climbing stairs and even arising from a sitting position, eventually become reasons to consider a total hip replacement. Because replaced hip joints can fail with time, whether and when to perform total hip replacement are not easy decisions, especially in younger patients.

Replacement is generally considered after pain becomes so severe that it impedes normal function despite use of anti-inflammatory medications. A total hip joint replacement is an elective procedure, which means that it is an option selected among other alternatives.

Total knee replacement is generally done when a person has a severe degenerative joint disorder such as osteoarthritis in which the articular, or moving, surfaces of the knee deteriorate, leading to severe pain, limitation or loss of function and/or deformity of the joint. The surgery is also performed to replace a badly fractured knee and when previous joint replacements have failed. Bilateral replacement means that both knees are replaced at the same time.

Other treatments are usually used before knee replacement surgery. These include:

• Acetaminophen or anti-inflammatory drugs if the joint has degenerated
• Synovectomy, which is the surgical removal of inflamed connective tissue

Sports Medicine

Sports medicine involves the evaluation and treatment of sports-related injuries and overuse syndromes, rehabilitation, arthroscopic knee and shoulder surgery and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction.