A-Rod's surgery, some details

From George King (NY Post):

“There is always risk with surgery, but the approach we are using is definitely much safer than letting Alex play the way he is now,” Philippon said. “There is no more risk doing this procedure than (the aggressive path). The only thing I can say is that because the cam (impingement) would still be there, long term there would be a risk of re-tearing his labrum. But short term, because I will remove part of the impingement, we feel the risk is very limited that he will re-tear his labrum during that six, seventh month period.”

For the Yankees’ sake, Philippon had better be right.

The Yankees are betting that Philippon won’t find a problem that needs more involved surgery that could lead to a four-month recovery period.

“I asked that question and he was almost certain that wasn’t the case,” general manager Brian Cashman said.

Originally, the Yankees and Rodriguez were presented with three plans: drain a cyst on the hip (which was done), play through the torn labrum or have surgery that would have shelved him for four months.

However, the draining of the cyst on Thursday went so well that Philippon presented the Yankees with a fourth choice: arthroscopic surgery to repair the labrum and fix the impingement. That choice would allow Rodriguez to wait until after the season for the full surgery.

“We will go in arthroscopically, which means two small incisions on the side of his hip,” Philippon explained. “We will go in with a camera and first inspect his hip joint and analyze the cartilage and the labrum and re-fix the labrum. When we do this we always remove a little bit of the bone when a pincer is present, which is the other type of impingement. A mixed type of impingement is pincer and cam. Alex has both, so at this time a surgeon will remove the pincer, repair his labrum and at the same time, seal the cyst and remove inflamed tissue.

Philippon is considered the best in his field, therefore, if you’re worried about Alex’s care, he should be fine (as long as there aren’t any surgical surprises when Philippon enters the hip). A-Rod will have surgery at 7 a.m. in Colorado. After the procedure, he’s expected to remain there so that Philippon can keep tabs on his progress.

More on the surgery later…