Hip Replacement Surgery - Advantages and Benefits

If your hip has been severely damaged either by an injury or by conditions associated with old age such as arthritis or any other conditions, and the chronic hip/groin pain keeps you awake at night and prevents you from doing day-to-day jobs, undergoing hip replacement surgery may be the best option to fix your hip pain and all related miseries.

An Overview
Also referred to as total hip replacement, hip arthroplasty or hip hemiarthroplasty, hip replacement is a common yet a major surgical procedure in which an orthopaedic surgeon replaces the painful hip-joint with an artificial hip-joint.

While performing this orthopaedic operation, the surgeon removes the damaged head of the thighbone (femur) and replaces the hip's ball-and-socket mechanism with artificial implants. The surgery significantly relieves the pain and improves a patient's mobility and his/her ability to perform daily activities.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) recognizes the surgery as one of the most successful operations in all of medicine. According to the U.S. government Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), more than 285,000 patients in the United States get their damaged hip replaced every year.

Advantages
If you have hip damage and you get little or no relief after using anti-inflammatory medicines, physical therapy and exercise for a reasonable period of time, you can take advantage of surgical approach for fixing your hip disorders.

One of the major advantages is that age is no barrier to gain the surgery benefits. The surgery can be just as beneficial for people in their 80s and 90s as it is for 60 year olds or even younger.

Another important factor, with regard to the benefits derived from the replacement surgery, is that it is cost effective.

There are an impressive number of patients who have had success with the surgery, thanks to the advancements in hip replacement, including computer-assisted implant placement, that help surgeons in accurately positioning the replacement devices.

Benefits
• Hip replacement surgery consistently reduces or eliminates the hip pain.
• It can give you many years of freedom from pain and fatigue that kept you awake at night for years.
• The dramatic reduction in hip pain enables a patient to have good night sleep.
• Following the surgery, a patient restores normal hip function with increased ease and comfort.
• It improves physical functioning, including walking and other movements, and benefits a patient's mental health as well.
• People who prior to the surgery felt it difficult to perform major activities of daily living such as sitting in a chair, on a toilet seat, putting on clothes and shoes, shopping, and cooking can experience a significant improvement in their mobility and movements post surgery.
• Correction of increased leg strength is another other benefit one can experience following the hip replacement surgery.

If you have had your hip-joint badly damaged from any cause and you are considering undergoing hip replacement surgery, it is highly advisable to discuss benefits and your expectations from the surgery with your doctor beforehand. Hip replacement is a safe and effective orthopaedic surgery but at the same time it is a major operation. So, before deciding undergoing the surgery, understand the procedure, its benefits and advantages as well its potential risks and complications, only having it explained by your surgeon.