Joint Replacement HawaiiPaul N. Morton, MD · Hip & Knee
(808) 439-6201Schedule Appointment

Board-Certified · Double Fellowship-Trained · FAAOS · FAAHKS

Hawai‘i’s hip & knee specialist for robotic joint replacement

Dr. Paul Norio Morton, MD performed Hawai‘i’s first robotic hip replacement and first smart knee implant. Muscle-sparing, tourniquet-free, opioid-sparing surgery — most patients walk the same day. Clinics in Honolulu, West Oahu, Hilo and Kona, plus a fly-in program for the neighbor islands, the Pacific and beyond.

Book a Consultation (808) 439-6201
  • 4 Robotic Platforms
  • Walk same day
  • Fly-in patient program

Also: ACL & meniscus surgery · PRP & BMAC joint preservation

Honolulu (Ala Moana) · West Oahu (Kunia) · Hilo · Kona · Walk-in ortho urgent care: Wiki Wiki Orthopedics, Kunia

Dr. Paul Norio Morton, MD — board-certified hip and knee surgeon in Honolulu

Dr. Paul Norio Morton, MD, FAAOS, FAAHKS is a board-certified, fellowship-trained hip and knee surgeon and the founder of Pacific Bone & Joint, with clinics in Honolulu (1441 Kapiolani Blvd, Suite 2020), West Oahu (Kunia), Hilo and Kona. He performs robotic hip and knee replacement, ACL and meniscus surgery, and PRP/BMAC joint preservation, and most new patients are seen within one to two weeks.

  • Honolulu Magazine 2025 Top Doctors in Hawai‘i badgeHonolulu Magazine Top Doctor2024 & 2025 lists
  • Castle Connolly Top Doctors badgeCastle Connolly Top DoctorNamed every year since 2023
  • West Hawaii Today Best of Hawai‘i West first-place badgeBest of West Hawai‘i — Best Physician2023 & 2024, reader-voted (West Hawaii Today)
  • Pacific Business News 40 Under 40, Class of 2021 badge naming Dr. Paul MortonPacific Business News 40 Under 40Class of 2021
  • Patient reviews →

Operating at Hawai‘i’s leading hospitals & surgery centers

  • The Queen's Medical Center — Honolulu
  • Adventist Health Castle
  • Hilo Community Surgery Center

Start here

What’s hurting?

Pick the closest match and go straight to the page that answers it — or skip ahead and book.

Knee pain

Arthritis, stiffness, bone-on-bone, pain on stairs or getting up from a chair.

Hip pain

Groin pain, a limp, stiffness, trouble with socks and shoes.

Sports injury

A pop, swelling, giving way, locking or clicking after a twist or a fall.

Want to avoid surgery

Early arthritis, a tendon that won’t settle, cortisone that has stopped lasting.

Something else? Second opinion · Painful or failed joint replacement · SI joint pain · Fractures & injuries · All services

Firstrobotic hip replacement performed in Hawai‘i
Firstsmart knee implant placed in Hawai‘i
2×fellowship-trained: hip & knee reconstruction (University of Chicago) and AO trauma (Berlin)
4robotic platforms certified: ROSA®, MAKO, CORI & VELYS

What we do

Advanced orthopedic care, from preservation to replacement

Every plan starts with the least invasive option that will actually work — therapy, PRP or BMAC, a repair — and when surgery is the right answer, you get the most modern version of it.

Dr. Paul Morton examines a senior patient's knee in a bright exam room at his Honolulu clinic.
Dr. Paul Morton, MD — hip & knee surgeon, founder of Pacific Bone & Joint.

Hip Replacement

Robotic total hip replacement through the muscle-sparing anterior approach — bikini-incision option, usually no hip precautions, walking the same day.

Robotic hipBikini incision

Knee Replacement

Robotic on every knee: quad-sparing subvastus approach, tourniquet-free, with cementless fixation where bone quality allows — for a quicker, stronger recovery.

Partial kneeCementless knee

ACL Reconstruction

Anatomic all-inside ACL reconstruction — or BEAR® repair for select early tears — with a testing-based return to sport that protects the knee from arthritis.

BEAR® ACL repairSports & joint preservation

Meniscus Repair

Repair the meniscus whenever the blood supply allows, trim only when you must — because preserved meniscus is the knee’s shock absorber for decades to come.

Knee arthroscopyKnee keeps clicking?

PRP Injections

Platelet-rich plasma from your own blood for mild-to-moderate arthritis and stubborn tendon pain — a written quote for exactly what’s recommended, never a package.

PRP for knee arthritisAll injections

BMAC Therapy

Bone marrow aspirate concentrate for arthritic joints and early avascular necrosis — explained honestly by a surgeon who can also offer every alternative.

Orthobiologics hubCartilage restoration

Same-Day Joint Replacement

Outpatient hip and knee replacement: walk the day of surgery and recover at home — or at a resort, if you’re flying in.

Same-day kneeRapid recovery

Revision & Complex Joints

A dedicated clinic for painful, failed, or infected joint replacements — the cases other surgeons refer out.

Painful hip replacementSecond opinion

Also: SI joint fusion · Cartilage restoration (MACI) · Joint injections · Fractures & injuries

See all services

The Morton method

Modern orthopedics is measurably different

Joint replacement has changed more in the last decade than in the previous forty years. Dr. Morton brought many of those changes to Hawai‘i first — and combines all of them in one protocol designed around a single goal: getting you back to your life faster, with less pain and a joint that lasts.

Explore the technology
Dr. Paul Morton stands beside the ROSA Knee robotic surgical system.
Dr. Morton with the ROSA® Knee robotic surgery system — one of four robotic platforms he operates.
  • Robotic precision on all four platforms — ROSA®, Mako, CORI & VELYS
  • Muscle-sparing approaches: subvastus knee, anterior bikini-incision hip
  • Tourniquet-free knee replacement for less pain and swelling
  • Opioid-sparing multimodal anesthesia and pain control
  • Cementless, biologically-fixed implants built to last decades
  • Spine-aware hip planning from sitting and standing X-rays
  • Same-day discharge with a rapid-recovery protocol
  • Implant surveillance and lifetime follow-up
Dr. Paul Norio Morton, MD, smiling outdoors in an aloha shirt with tropical greenery behind him in Hawai‘i.

“The Robot Doc”

Meet your surgeon

Paul Norio Morton, MD, FAAOS, FAAHKS

Born and raised in Kea‘au on Hawai‘i Island, Dr. Morton served as a volunteer firefighter before becoming a surgeon. After training at the University of Hawai‘i's John A. Burns School of Medicine, chief residency in Pennsylvania, fellowship in hip & knee reconstruction at the University of Chicago, and an AO trauma fellowship in Berlin, he came home — and became the first surgeon in Hawai‘i to perform robotic hip replacement and smart knee replacement.

  • Board-certified, double fellowship-trained hip & knee surgeon
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (FAAOS)
  • Fellow of the American Association of Hip & Knee Surgeons (FAAHKS)
  • Local roots, island-wide reach — clinics in Honolulu, West Oahu (Kunia), Hilo & Kona
About Dr. Morton

Fly in. Get moving. Recover in paradise.

Destination joint replacement in Hawai‘i

Why wait months for surgery — or recover somewhere cold? Patients travel to Dr. Morton from the neighbor islands, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and the mainland. When coming in first isn't practical, your consultation can start by telehealth; surgery, aftercare, and physical therapy are coordinated so you can recover minutes from the beach before flying home confident.

  • Telehealth evaluation before you travel, when a visit isn't practical
  • Consultation, imaging & surgery scheduled around one trip
  • Lodging, transport & trip management can be arranged through the Rapid Recovery Concierge
  • Fit-to-fly planning and follow-up after you're home
The fly-in patient programRapid Recovery Concierge
Aerial view of Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
Neighbor Islands Guam & Saipan American Samoa Philippines日本の患者様へ한국 환자분들께

Patient stories

Back to the life they love

“His knowledge and skill in robotic hip and knee replacement surgery has given me back my life.”

Verified patientRobotic joint replacement · Yelp review

“Dr. Morton & his team are caring and simply awesome. The new Waipahu office is very conveniently located. I am thrilled with my new hip — 21 days out and I’m walking normally.”

Jane K.Hip replacement · West Oahu · Google review

“From the first visit I felt very secure and comfortable with him. The surgery was very successful — I was walking without assistance after only 5 days. The level of care and kindness have been extraordinary.”

Verified patientTotal knee replacement · Healthgrades review

Quotes from public patient reviews; individual results vary. Read more reviews → Watch video testimonials →

See it for yourself

Watch: knee replacement with the ROSA® robot

Dr. Morton explains how robotic assistance turns a CT-free 3D plan of your knee into millimeter-level surgical precision — and what that means for how you feel in the first weeks after surgery.

More videos & TV featuresVisit the YouTube channel →
As seen onLogos of Hawai‘i media that have featured Dr. Morton — MidWeek, KHON2, KITV4 Island Television, Pacific Business News, and Living808.

Questions patients ask first

Who is Dr. Paul Morton?
Dr. Paul Norio Morton, MD, FAAOS, FAAHKS is a board-certified, fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon in Honolulu specializing in hip and knee surgery, and the founder of Pacific Bone & Joint, with clinics in Honolulu (Ala Moana), West Oahu (Kunia), Hilo and Kona. He performed Hawai‘i’s first robotic-assisted total hip replacement and the state’s first smart-knee replacement, and he treats patients from every Hawaiian island, the Pacific, and Asia.
What is robotic joint replacement, and is it better?
Robotic-assisted joint replacement uses a surgical robot (ROSA®, Mako, CORI, or VELYS) to turn a 3D plan of your joint into bone cuts and implant positions executed with millimeter-level precision. Across published studies, robotic assistance is consistently associated with more accurate implant positioning and fewer alignment outliers than conventional instruments; in hips, a 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis of 17 studies in The Bone & Joint Journal (Ng et al.) found more cups in the target zone and modestly better early hip scores. Individual results vary, and the surgeon — not the robot — performs the surgery. Read the evidence in detail →
How soon can I walk after hip or knee replacement?
Most of Dr. Morton’s patients stand and walk with assistance the same day as surgery. His rapid-recovery protocol combines muscle-sparing approaches (the subvastus approach for knees; the anterior approach for hips, with a bikini-incision option), tourniquet-free knee surgery, and opioid-sparing multimodal pain control, so many patients go home within 24 hours. Individual results vary.
Do I need surgery for a torn ACL or meniscus?
Not always — it depends on the tear and on you. A fully torn ACL doesn’t reliably heal into a working ligament, and active people whose knee gives way risk meniscus and cartilage damage with every episode, so ACL reconstruction — or BEAR® repair for select early tears treated within 50 days — is usually recommended for them, while some lower-demand patients do well with rehab alone. Meniscus tears in the outer, blood-supplied zone are worth repairing and preserving; degenerative tears in adults over 40 are usually treated first with physical therapy and injections, with arthroscopy reserved for a locked knee or mechanical symptoms that persist. A knee that popped, swelled or locked deserves an exam this week: acute injuries are prioritized, and on the Leeward side Wiki Wiki Orthopedics takes walk-ins with X-ray on site.
Is PRP or BMAC covered by insurance?
Usually not. Most insurers still classify PRP and BMAC as investigational, so both are offered as transparent cash-pay treatments: you receive a written quote for exactly what is recommended before you decide, and no packages are pushed. The consultation itself — the exam and imaging that decide whether a biologic makes sense — is often covered, and the office verifies your benefits first. When a covered option such as cortisone or, for a documented arthritis diagnosis, hyaluronic acid is the better tool, that is what Dr. Morton recommends.
Do you treat patients from the neighbor islands and other countries?
Yes. Patients regularly fly in from Hawai‘i Island, Maui, Kauai, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and the US mainland. Hawai‘i Island patients can be seen in person at the Hilo and Kona clinics; when an in-person first visit isn’t practical, a telehealth consultation reviews imaging arranged near your home, and recovery planning in Hawai‘i is built into the practice’s destination surgery program — and travel, lodging and ground transportation can be arranged through the Rapid Recovery Concierge when you want that handled for you.
Does insurance cover joint replacement with Dr. Morton?
The practice accepts most major plans including HMSA, Medicare, Medicaid/Quest, AlohaCare, UHA, HMAA, United Healthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Humana, TRICARE, VA Community Care, and more, plus transparent self-pay packages for patients without coverage — and the office verifies your benefits before your visit. Managed-care and Medicaid/Quest plans may need a referral from your primary care physician.

See all FAQs — Ask Dr. Morton →

Your first step is a conversation

Tell us what's hurting and what you want to get back to. We'll map out your options — surgical and non-surgical — and build a plan around your life. Most new patients are seen within one to two weeks in Honolulu, West Oahu, Hilo or Kona.

Book a ConsultationCall (808) 439-6201

Paul Norio Morton, MD, FAAOS, FAAHKS · Hawai‘i’s first robotic hip & smart knee · Read patient reviews →

Most major plans accepted — we verify benefits before your visit. Traveling from off-island? See the fly-in patient program →

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