HIP REPLACEMENT
About Hip Replacements
Finding a doctor to assist you is the first step when making the decision about hip replacement to determine if you’re an applicant for hip replacement. To determine whether your eligible for a replacement, your doctor will review complete a physical examination, x-ray your hip, and review your medical history.
After the initial review of your information, your doctor may offer some non-operative options to hip replacements. These avenues may include exercise, weight loss, medication, injections, or bracing. If these avenues don’t work, your doctor will then most likely discuss surgery with you. If you have to consider surgery, you need to have conversations with your doctor, loved ones, and signifcant other. Ultimately, the final decision to move forward with hip replacement is based on your pain and disability that is affecting your overall quality of life.
Complications to Consider
- Hip replacement is an excellent pain relieving procedure
- The implants used can also fail over time due to wear of the bearing components or loosening of the components from the bone, both of which usually occur over many years.
- Patients may experience a complication in the postoperative period, which is normally relatively minimal. These can include stroke, heart attack pulmonary embolism, infection, blood clot, and kidney failure.
- Another complication specific is dislocation of the joint that may require additional surgery if dislocation becomes recurring.
- Leg length differences following surgery is possible. Often this leg length discrepancy is quite unnoticeable and requires no further action.