Ascension Saint Alexius in Hoffman Estates expanding joint-replacement surgery capacity

Ascension Saint Alexius in Hoffman Estates is increasing its capacity for joint-replacement surgeries by 50% Thursday — a major step for one of only the three orthopedic specialty centers in Illinois.

About a decade after it was conceived, the campus’ Center for Advanced Joint Replacement will add two more operating rooms to its existing four. And the new ones are roughly 25% larger, allowing more space for robotic assistance equipment.

“It has always remained a goal of everyone at Saint Alexius that we continue to improve our care to meet the developing needs of our patient population,” Saint Alexius Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Hiland said. “This investment — worth $4 million — is the product of that desire for continuous improvement and growth.”

Knees are the most common replacement surgeries at the center, followed by hips, then shoulders. Replacement is the only cure for arthritis in the knees, adult reconstructive hip and knee surgeon Samuel Lake said.

After OB/GYN services were moved to the newly constructed Saint Alexius Women & Children’s Hospital on the campus, the center took over its current wing and fully renovated it. The floor now includes preparation and recovery areas to ensure patient comfort, and a rehab area for patients to practice their mobility after what’s typically an outpatient procedure.

Orthopedic surgeon Paul Nourbash said the philosophy was to keep joint replacement patients who’ve been improving their fitness and weight in preparation for their surgeries separate from the truly ill population of the hospital.

It’s not uncommon for a patient with a 7 a.m. surgery to be practicing getting into a vehicle mock-up in the therapy area at noon before getting into their real vehicle to go home at 3 p.m., he added.

Construction of the center initially stopped at four operating rooms to test that level of capacity, but the go-ahead for the other two was given a year ago.

The additional operating rooms allow surgeons and staff to be more efficient with the highly sought procedures and shorten waiting lists at the go-to joint replacement center for Northwest suburban residents, Nourbash said.

He personally performs about 300 procedures annually, while each member of the assisting staff probably does about 800. Besides the patient and the equipment, about six people are present for each surgery.

One of the most distinctive aspects of joint-replacement surgery, especially the gold standard applied at Saint Alexius, is the highly sterile environment of the operating rooms, Lake said.

Ventilation refreshes the air in the rooms 13 times a minute to help prevent infection-causing bacteria get onto the newly cleaned surgical instruments and the replacement joints, which have an expected life span of 25 years.

Nourbash said technological improvements have been a regular part of his nearly three decades in orthopedics. In fact, the modern type of total hip replacement dates back only to the 1960s while knees weren’t common until the ‘70s.

One of the biggest differences between his male and female patients has been the length of time they generally live with the discomfort of bad joints before doing something about it, Nourbash said.

He compares their contrasting attitudes to joint replacement to drivers experiencing a flat tire while visiting St. Louis. A woman will generally get the tire changed in St. Louis while a man will try to see if he can make it back to Chicago first, Nourbash joked.