Widening The Scope

Innovations in hip arthroscopy helping patients, especially young athletes, forgo replacement surgery.

- Matthew Stanmyre

JANAE GEONNETTI lay in a post-operative bed at St. Joseph’s Wayne Hospital in November 2015, bawling hysterically. Not only had the 22-year-old Mount Laurel native just endured the first surgery of her life, but she felt certain that her competitive soccer career was finished.

Geonnetti, who now lives in Whippany, had starred for four years at Montclair State University, an aggressive defender helping the team to make the NCAA Tournament each season. She had visions of pursuing a professional career before tearing the labrum in her left hip prior to her final college season, leaving her in daily agony and eroding her abilities on the field.

As the anesthesia faded following hip arthroscopy surgery to repair the tear, Geonnetti believed she was confronting the death of her soccer days.

“I didn’t think I would ever be normal again, or even feel normal,” Geonnetti says. “After the surgery, I really didn’t think I would ever be capable of playing again.”

Less than two decades ago, Geonnetti may have been right. But thanks to recent innovations in hip arthroscopy, doctors say they now are able to save and prolong the sports careers of young athletes such as Geonnetti. Also benefitting are average people with chronic hip pain or serious injuries, who now can avoid hip replacements and live in less pain.

Arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage and ligaments in knees, shoulders and even elbows has been widely used for decades, but significant developments in hip arthroscopy that can help people from all walks of life have come about in just the past 10 years, according to Vincent McInerney, a prominent New Jersey orthopaedic surgeon.