Sam moved from her native England to North Carolina in 2004, bringing along her horse, Cymro. But in 2012, the pain after riding “progressed to a level that was unbearable,” she says.

Sam struggled with limitations due to the pain, which affected all aspects of her daily life. She had trouble getting up when she was sitting, and she certainly couldn’t ride a horse. “I couldn’t sleep and I wasn’t able to get out of a chair. Day-to-day activities were painful.”

After a series of misdiagnoses, Sam turned to Richard C. Mather III, M.D., an orthopaedic surgeon associated with Duke University Hospital, who specializes in sports medicine and hip preservation procedures. Dr. Mather’s diagnosis: a combined femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), a structural abnormality of the hip joint that alters its biomechanics and often leads to soft tissue damage. This type of hip injury tends to affect younger, active patients.

To repair the damage, he performed arthroscopic surgery, a minimally invasive procedure commonly used to repair knee and shoulder joint injuries. “Hip arthroscopy has evolved rapidly over the last few years,” says Dr. Mather. “We can now treat FAI and other hip problems very successfully.”

Unlike other joints in the human body, the hip joint has a unique anatomy that can make surgical intervention complicated. To properly address these special requirements, hip specialists like Dr. Mather rely on specialized surgical instruments. This is where Stryker comes in.