Advanced hip & knee surgery for Samoa & American Samoa, in Honolulu

For hip and knee problems that need specialty surgery, most American Samoa residents already know the answer involves a plane. The question is where to land. Honolulu offers the shortest path to full American specialty care: your Medicare or US insurance works here, your records stay in the US system, and you recover in a place where Pacific families are family — not foreigners.

Dr. Paul Morton is a board-certified, fellowship-trained hip & knee surgeon, raised on Hawai‘i Island, who performed the state's first robotic hip replacement. Treating patients who fly in from across the Pacific — including American Samoa — is a normal part of his week, and his fly-in program is built around it.

Because an in-person first visit isn't practical from Pago Pago, everything can start at home with a telehealth consultation. We help arrange X-rays locally, review your history, and give you an honest answer about whether surgery is needed at all. When surgery is the right call, your testing, operation, and early recovery are scheduled around a single trip — with a written plan and cost estimate before you book anything.

Pacific patients rarely travel alone — and they shouldn't. A family member as your recovery partner is genuinely good medicine: they learn your exercises with you, help with wound-care basics, and make the hotel days easier. Every teaching conversation includes the people who'll be helping you at home. Lodging is arranged directly with the hotel of your choice near the clinic — the practice is not affiliated with any property — and you don't have to sort out the trip alone: travel and lodging coordination can be arranged through the Rapid Recovery Concierge, at the TotalCare Elite level. Ask your coordinator what fits your route, and you will get the options in writing before anything is booked.

If cost is a concern, ask about transparent self-pay packages and what your coverage actually pays — many patients find the numbers are more manageable than they feared once they're in writing.

Dr. Morton's protocol is built for people who need to recover efficiently and get home: robotic-assisted planning for precise implant placement, muscle-sparing approaches, tourniquet-free technique, and opioid-sparing pain control. Most patients stand and walk the day of surgery. Physical therapy and wound checks happen over the following week, and you fly home cleared, confident, and with follow-ups already scheduled.