Professional Tennis Player David Nalbandian | Chronic Hip Pain | Arthroscopic Hip Surgery

Dec. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- Dr. Marc Philippon, world-renowned orthopedic hip surgeon and an innovator in minimally-invasive arthroscopic hip surgery, is often sought out by high profile athletes at his Vail, CO Steadman Clinic office. Athletes who consistently use a repetitive motion such as golfers, hockey and tennis players, and who are chronically susceptible to hip-joint injuries, come from all over the globe to see this world-class hip specialist with high hopes that he can correct their injuries and put them back into the playing field of action.  

Professional tennis player David Nalbandian is one of these high profile athletes. The 2005 winner of the Tennis Masters Cup and a runner-up at the 2002 Wimbledon, Nalbandian was at one time ranked number three in the world and is one of only a few tennis champions to have reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slams.  Known as a consistently clean, all-court tennis player, Nalbandian’s accurate, yet powerful strokes, have notably provided him with a very low error-percentage rate for years. His wide drive is a signature move that sends balls into the backcourt with low, spinning acute angles.

It’s these signature moves that ultimately began to cause Nalbandian chronic hip pain from over-use and repetitive extension on the courts. Training day in and day out, year after year, eventually caught up with this star athlete. He ended up at the doors of Dr. Marc Philippon just a few short months shy of the 2010 World Tour Finals.

“When David arrived, he was experiencing chronic hip pain and he was very forthcoming about wanting the problem fixed as quickly as possible so that he could return to the court. I understood where he was coming from—he was anxious to get healthy so that he could return to the circuit to play—and win. The overuse and over flexion that was the result of years of aggressive tennis put undue pressure on the hip joint and a surgical intervention was needed in order to repair the damage.  This type of chronic injury could eventually result in osteoarthritis and in some cases, years down the road, could lead to a total hip replacement.  This is not a desired outcome we like to envision, so the early diagnosis made him a perfect candidate for hip arthroscopic surgery to repair the problem,” said Philippon.

Nalbandian entered the Vail, CO Steadman Clinic doors for hip arthroscopic surgery in May of 2010 and spent several months in aggressive and consistent rehab beginning first in Barcelona and then returning later to Argentina to complete his recovery regime as prescribed by Philippon. A slow and steady return to the sport allowed Nalbandian to make a healthy and stable comeback with each day of training providing him with stronger hits and powerful, pain-free moves.

Just recently, in the 2010 ATP world Tour Finals, Nalbandian entered post-injury and took back the championship iconic illustration of a true tennis professional by overthrowing Croatian world champion tennis player, Marin Cilic. Cilic’s hopes of reaching the ATP World Tour Finals were dashed when Nalbandian dumped him out of the tournament.  Though Nalbandian was performing under Cilic during the first couple of rounds, he came storming back to win the match and regain a part of his championship status.  

According to sports commentators and spectators alike, one would never have known that this world-class athlete had at one time recently experienced debilitating pain in his hip and concurrently was out for months due to surgery and rehab. Nalbandian, to say the least, was delighted with the 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory, and said that he “will try to break back into the Top 10 the following year.”

In upcoming, scheduled matches, Nalbandian will play Andy Roddick, who boosted his chances with a routine 6-3, 6-4 victory over Andrey Golubev.

Dr. Marc Philippon has successful launched other high profile champion athletes back into high performing, painless careers including Mario Lemieux of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, Olympic gold medal figure skater Tara Lipinski, NBA basketball star Marcus Camby, Pro Bowl NFL running back Priest Holmes and Gold-medal winner in the giant slalom at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, Julia Mancuso.

According to Philippon, “My goal with each patient is to keep them strong, active and healthy so that they can get back to their careers and to the sports they love.  Diagnosing these problems early is key in order to avoid long-term problems.  Many of my young athletes continue to lead their sports with the same world-class athleticism as before their injuries occurred.”

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Marc Philippon, MD is an orthopedic hip surgeon with the Steadman Clinic in Vail, CO. He specializes in all conditions of the hip as well as arthroscopic hip surgery, sports medicine, athletic injuries and degenerative conditions of the hip.