Introducing the Direct Anterior Approach (DAA) to THA Into Your Practice: a Senior Surgeon's Look at If, How and Why

INTRODUCTION:The senior surgeon has performed THA in his practice for over 30 years, and, while performing THA and revision THA utilizing a variety of surgical approaches, has employed and taught the modified Gibson posterolateral approach to the hip joint as his “workhorse” surgical approach for the majority of his career. In following the development of the DAA, he felt that there were subgroups of patients in his practice for whom the DAA, and supine THA, might prove beneficial, and started to introduce this approach into his practice 2 years ago. This retrospective review describes the risks and benefits of choosing to introduce this approach, and outlines a rational way in which surgeons can decide if they should learn and then offer this approach to appropriate patients within their practice.METHODS AND MATERIALS:A retrospective study was performed comparing outcomes of patients who underwent THA with the standard posterolateral approach vs. those who underwent THA with the direct anterior approach....