Jennifer Mathews: Bobby Castor plays on his school's golf team.
Bobby Castor: I just really love a lot of things about the game.
Jennifer Mathews: But a broken hip in grade school led to a condition called avascular necrosis. Decreased blood flow caused his hip joint to die. Since the hips drive a golf swing, it hurt Bobby's game.
Bobby Castor: And also just limping around the course and just kind of being in a constant state of pain for almost half the day, it's hard to deal with.
Jennifer Mathews: So, Bobby took advantage of a new procedure developed by Duke University doctors called a free vascularized fibular graft. They take a piece of the bone from the lower leg, insert it into a hole drilled into the hip joint, and connect the blood vessels on the other end.
Dr. James Urbaniak: So, the new blood circulating causes new bone to grow. So, in effect, we're trying to bring the hip bone back alive.
Jennifer Mathews: So far, the procedure has an 80% success rate.
James Urbaniak: I think the biggest advantage, if it works well and we catch the disease early enough, it can last the patient's lifetime.
Bobby Castor: And so this is really gonna prolong my quality of life quite a bit.
Jennifer Mathews: And the quality of his game, since eliminating his physical handicap will help cut his golf handicap too. This is Jennifer Mathews reporting.
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