In treating hip dysplasia our goal is to stop the pain in the hip joint by preventing subluxation of the joint. This is accomplished by placing 3 to 4 gold beads in specific nerve receptor sites outside of the joint.
These points are located anterior, dorsal, and posterior to the hip joint. The joint tightens up immediately post implant with the gold beads. The pain is usually gone within one week post implant, however, a small percentage of the dogs require up to 3 weeks to get complete relief. Radiographically we normally see remodeling of the hip joint within 6 months post implant.
Our success rate for treating hip dysplasia with the gold bead implant is 98% success in dogs under 7 years of age: 75% success in dogs 7 to 12 years of age; and 50% success in dogs from 12 to 17 years of age. Degenerative myelopath can reduce our success rate.
This dysplastic hip X-ray shows bilateral subluxated hips. The red arrows point to areas of osteophyte deposits and the blue arrows points to the subluxation.
X-ray showing a dog with hip dysplasia. The red arrows points to areas of osteophyte deposits. The blue arrow shows a subluxated hip.
This picture shows the areas where the gold beads are normally placed when treating a dog for hip dysplasia. The red dots are the base points that we treat. We next move out to the second layer of blue dots. After implanting the blue dots we look in the green dot area to see if they need to be implanted with the gold beads. After the green dots are treated then we search out the yellow dots to see if they need to be treated. We may have to treat out to two more layers before giving the dog complete relief.
This picture show a dog post gold bead implant. The acupuncture points that shows blood are areas where the dog has the most pain. Immediately post implant the joint tightens up and the pain stops. With time the joint will remodel.
Dr. Durkes implants gold beads to relieve the pain in the hip joint by preventing subluxation of the joint.