Dennis Fillipi

Dennis Fillipi, Patient in Orthopedics

“After one week, I felt brand new. I’ve never felt better in the last seven years, and I’m very thankful for what Dr. Muench did.”

Seven years ago, Dennis fell off a ladder and broke his right leg and hip . . . hard. Surgery repaired his many fractures with a long metal rod within his femur and a shorter screw connecting his femur and hip. “I healed up pretty good, but I had a lot of pain in my hip area,” even after the upper screw was removed, Dennis says. “I nursed it along for seven years.”

Finally, he’d had enough. His wife Julie recommended orthopedic surgeon Dr. Clinton Muench, who impressed her with her own medical care earlier. Dr. Muench suggested Dennis consider Tenex, an outpatient procedure to clean out scar tissue and calcifications, to stimulate the hip’s tendon to heal.

“Dennis had his symptoms for a long time and had tried everything else first – time, anti-inflammatories, and therapy,” Dr. Muench says. That history, plus a physical exam and x-rays, showed Dennis was a good candidate for Tenex.

Dr. Muench used a microtip tool, guided by ultrasound, to remove damaged tissue from the calcified tendon and bursa in Dennis’ hip to stimulate it to heal. Dennis went home with a tiny incision taped closed and a small bandage. “After one week, I felt brand new,” says Dennis, who felt so good he overextended himself and had to rest up for several days.

At six weeks, “Dr. Muench wanted to know how I recovered so quickly. He thought it would take up to three months. But I’m a Bohemian, and we’re stoic,” Dennis laughs. “I healed fast without much soreness.”

Dennis chose to have Tenex at Northfield Hospital’s Surgery Center because “it’s a very simple procedure and a quick heal,” he says. “There’s no real heavy surgery involved.”

He chose Dr. Muench because “he was very good at doing the procedure, and explaining the process,” Dennis says. “I’ve never felt better in the last seven years, and I’m very thankful for what Dr. Muench did.”

He’s already recommending it to friends. “A gentleman I have coffee with every day is going through the same thing,” Dennis says. “I told him: ‘Go see Dr. Muench.’”

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