All About Hip Replacement Surgery
If you live with excruciating hip pain that doesn’t respond to conservative treatment, you might need hip arthroscopy, also known as a hip replacement. This is a standard surgical procedure — every year, orthopedic surgeons across the United States perform over 450,000 hip replacement surgeries.
Our expert orthopedic surgeons regularly provide hip replacement surgeries at Bahri Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. We know how disruptive hip pain can be, so we want to share everything you need to know about hip replacement surgery.
Reasons for hip replacement surgery
Let’s start at the beginning — why would we recommend total hip arthroplasty? We don’t offer it as a first-line treatment for hip problems. However, if your pain is so severe that you can’t move or if it doesn’t subside with other therapies, we can talk to you about your hips surgery options. Other signs that you might benefit from hip surgery include:
- You can’t complete your day-to-day tasks without help
- Your pain keeps you awake at night
- The pain and its impact on your life are interfering with your mental health
- Your medication causes intolerable side effects
- You have significant joint damage
- Our tests indicate that less invasive treatments won’t help
We often recommend hip surgery to repair advanced cases of osteoarthritis. You might also need a hip replacement for other types of arthritis or a traumatic injury.
Our surgeons provide thorough consultations and exams to determine if total hip replacement is the right treatment for you. We can answer any questions about your condition or treatment options during your consultation.
Preparing for hip replacement surgery
We provide customized instructions to help you get ready for your surgery. We review your lifestyle during your consultation, including the medications, vitamins, and supplements you take every day.
Based on this information, we might recommend that you stop taking specific medicines for a few days before your surgery. You also need to fast for several hours. In some cases, you can have hip replacement as an outpatient procedure. You should arrange for someone to drive you to and from your appointment if an outpatient procedure is right for you.
We can also provide advice on how to prepare your home. You might want a friend or family member to stay with you for a few days. If possible, you might want to make sure that you have everything you need on one floor.
Hip replacement surgery
We provide general anesthesia, so you sleep comfortably through the procedure. We make small incisions in your hip to access your joint. We offer conventional posterior (rear) approaches as well as lateral (side) and anterior (front) surgical approaches.
Your surgeon carefully removes your damaged bone and then replaces it with prosthetics. Next, your surgeon carefully attaches your tendons and other connective tissue to your new joint. Finally, your surgeon removes the instruments and closes your incisions.
Recovering from total hip arthroscopy
We provide personalized instructions to help you recover comfortably. We can prescribe pain-relieving medication, mobility devices to help you move around, and nutritional advice. You also start physical therapy almost right away.
You should see reasonably rapid improvements over the first three or four months. You continue to recover but at a slower rate. You might need six months or more to recover fully.
Our team provides routine follow-up appointments to monitor your recovery and let you know when it’s safe to add activities back into your daily routine.
Call our office or make an appointment online today if you have severe or chronic hip pain or are looking for expert orthopedic surgeons to perform total hip arthroplasty.