To Ski or Not to Ski on Replaced Hips

A report on two friends Since the outbreak of peace and prosperity in Europe forty years ago skiing has become one of the most popular pastimes , and now many of its ageing devotees have had their hips replaced, they are still sound in wind, are they also sound in limb? They feel physically restored, the snows and the slopes beckon, should they accept the challenge or should 'wiser councils prevail'? My interest in this question arises because the dilemma has faced two of my friends and skiing companions of many years. The first Maurice Willoughby, started skiing before the war at the age of 16. A regular army officer, he was at one time an instructor in the School of Mountain Warfare at The Cedars in the Lebanon, where he taught me to ski in 1946. He later represented Great Britain in the Winter Pentathlon in the first postwar Olympic Games at St Moritz, where, incidentally , the British was the only pentathlon team in which every member completed all the events. He has skied virtually every year since, is registered as a skiing instructor in both Britain and Austria, and for many years, as skiing corresponding of the Daily Mail has spent several months in the Alps each year reporting on the scene. At the age of 70 he was the star of BBC Television series in which he showed that you could still take up new sports at that age?some readers may remember the 'Willoughby' programme. In 1984, aged 71, he began to have some pain in the R hip on walking and an X-ray showed Osteo-arthritis of both hips, more severe on the Rt. Gradually this became incapacitating and late in 1987 he had a R hip replacement. In 1988 he could not consider skiing, in 1989 he was frustrated by lack of snow in the Alps. In 1990 he decided to try again after seeking the advice of his consultant orthopaedic surgeon, who wrote to him as follows. "First of all I have not seen a patient who has come to harm after a hip replacement. However, clearly anybody with a hip replacement must be more at risk than anybody with a normal hip. Not only that, but a fracture sustained in proximity to an artificial joint is always more difficult to deal with. For these reasons alone, I therefore do not encourage my patients …