As we grow older our joints get old, too. Depending which joints we are talking about, sometimes we can do something about it and sometimes we can’t.
Our patient today is a 63 year old man, let’s call him Peter. This is what his hip looked like a while ago.
One of his hips (yellow) is really worn out if we compare it with the other (blue).
Also, if we compare it with a 20-year old’s hip, we can see some clear signs of wearing in Peter’s. For example, the joint space is narrow and irregular, and there are some small bone spurs on it. We call this osteoarthritis.
Sometimes, this doesn’t cause any trouble. The patient may not even feel a thing.
But in this case, our patient had some pain. Moreover, he was starting to limb, even though he barely noticed—but everybody around him did, and told him so.
After some years of taking painkillers, Peter decided to go to the doctor, who recommended a hip replacement. That’s the only solution for hip osteoarthritis as of today.
Peter agreed to surgery and this is the result:
As you can see, he has a metal hip now. This type is a “total hip replacement“, which is the best option for these cases. It has 2 parts: one is attached to the pelvis and the other to the femur, acting as the femoral “ball”.
After a few days in the hospital, he was able to stand, then walk with help a few steps. Then, he went home with some crutches and after 2 weeks, he was able to walk without any help.
Surgery usually offers very good results. The main thing you have to be careful about is: don’t flex your hip too much.
Especially, you want to avoid leaning down to get things from the floor. That’s because your new hip could come out of its place (dislocation). You can use some reacher grabber instead.
Little by little, you will start feeling as is it was your own hip.
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