After hip surgery in the summer, a hockey player building a comeback to the top Jesse Puljujärvi25, has gotten into a good playing mood with the AHL team Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
The Finnish forward recorded 1+1 power points as the team defeated Lehigh Valley 4-3 early Saturday night. Puljujärvi has hit 4+4=8 in the ten AHL games he has played.
Player’s agent Markus Lehto says that the long break from games during the rehabilitation period was visible when Puljujärvi returned to the rink.
– I’m no longer in the rehabilitation phase, but it always takes its own time to learn how to function with renewed hips, Lehto tells Urheilu.
– As for whether the man is NHL level now, I would say that some exchanges look completely NHL level, but maintaining that level continuously is of course still a bit of a challenge. Day by day has gone forward.
What the heck is resurfacing?
Puljujärvi, who played in Edmonton and Carolina at the end of the 2022-2023 NHL season, told Urheilu after his hip surgery in July that he fought with his hips the whole season. Maintenance of the hips took time and painkillers were consumed.
Puljujärvi told For Iltalehti in December that both of his hips were resurfaced.
A specialist in orthopedics and traumatology who has been the doctor of the Finnish Olympic team several times Tuomo Karila says that in resurfacing, the head of the femur is resurfaced, while in a standard artificial joint operation, the neck of the femur is cut and a stemmed artificial joint with a metal sliding surface ball is placed in the core canal of the femur.
– The ball can be made of different materials. But the coating artificial joint typically has a metal-metal surface, i.e. the side of the hip socket has a metal sliding surface and the coating to be put on the end of the femur is also a metal surface.
In the picture below, resurfacing is on the left and a traditional artificial joint is on the right.
According to Karila, a resurfaced hip can feel more like your own hip than a traditional artificial joint, but there are no major differences from the traditional model.
– In principle, when we leave the neck of the femur uncut, maybe our own anatomy will keep up better. But of course you always have to ask if your own anatomy is necessarily optimal for the function of the hip joint, if you have to install an artificial joint on a 20-year-old man. The 20-year-old is not a traditional arthritic patient.
Karila says that resurfacing as a name is a bit confusing, because the operation is larger than traditional artificial joint surgery and recovery from it takes longer.
– A larger opening has to be made and the thigh has to be rotated considerably to expose the head of the femur so that it can be worked on. Traditional arthroplasty can be done from a smaller opening and with less tissue trauma. I would see that a traditional artificial joint would probably give a better result in my opinion.
– But of course this is a matter of opinion when we speculate. I don’t know exactly which model has been used for the athlete in question.
Not made in Finland
Puljujärvi is operated in New York by Dr Edwin Suwho has performed similar operations, for example the top forward of the NHL club Detroit Red Wings To Patrick Kane and tennis star For Andy Murray.
Kalevan according to the report, resurfacing of both hips has not been done for professional hockey players.
Tuomo Karila says that recoating is not being done for anyone in Finland at the moment.
The first resurfacings were made in Finland at the turn of the 21st century, but after the initial enthusiasm, most brands were withdrawn from the market, as metal ions were released from the resurfacing artificial joints, which caused, for example, premature separation of the artificial joints and the formation of tumor-like pseudotumors.
– It’s not a tumor, but a certain kind of metal collection that forms in the hip joint. These got so bad that quite a few of these artificial joints had to be replaced. However, when the traditional artificial joint model is much safer, and they have very good, long-term follow-up results, coating artificial joints were practically omitted in Finland, says Karila.
According to Karila, not everything is known about the risks caused by metal ions, although there is research on the subject.
– We also try to avoid unnecessary risk-taking. We don’t want to consider Finnish citizens as guinea pigs.
Attempts have also been made to bring ceramic coated joints to the market, but they have not been successful in Finland.
Still at the top level?
Athletes who have undergone hip resurfacing have returned to the top level with varying degrees of success.
Florida Panthers captain, defender Ed Jonakovski played 37 games after resurfacing in 2013–14, but then retired.
In the summer of 2022, the top center of the Washington Capitals underwent hip resurfacing Nicklas Backström announced in November that he would stay out of the rinks. He managed to play 39 matches in the 2022–2023 season, but fell short of his scoring pace of previous seasons. This season, he was involved in eight matches with a score of 0+1.
Andy Murray, the former world number one in tennis, had his hip resurfaced in 2019, but he has not been able to climb into the world’s top 40 again.
Patrick Kane, on the other hand, has excelled after returning to the NHL ice. The American forward has scored 7+9=16 points in the 19 NHL games he has played in the Red Wings.
Edwin Su has operated on all the athletes mentioned above.
Orthopedist Tuomo Karila cannot say whether the athlete will have the opportunity to rise to the level before the operation after hip resurfacing.
– Does it make sense to start using an artificial hip joint so aggressively, even if there is a very wear-resistant sliding pair, is one thing. There isn’t much evidence that Asentoaisti and others will be able to return to pre-surgery levels. It requires a lot of work.
Puljujärvi’s agent Markus Lehto does not say what kind of negotiations have taken place regarding the continuation, but believes that the Finn will soon be playing again at the highest level of hockey.
– I firmly believe that Jesse Puljujärvi will play in the NHL this season. Provided, of course, that the hips work and can be made to work in such a way that the man would be able to play at his upper limits. To some extent, we have to take into account where we have come from and where we are going now, says Lehto.