Posted on 07/11/2010 1:44:51 PM PDT by neverdem
THERE is nothing like a new hip or knee to put the spring back in your step. Patients receiving joint implants often are able to resume many of the physical activities they love, even those as vigorous as tennis and hiking. No wonder, then, that joint replacement is growing in popularity.
In the United States in 2007, surgeons performed about 806,000 hip and knee implants (the joints most commonly replaced), double the number performed a decade earlier. Though these procedures have become routine, they are not fail-safe.
Implants must sometimes be replaced, said Dr. Henrik Malchau, an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. A study published in 2007 found that 7 percent of hips implanted in Medicare patients had to be replaced within seven and a half years.
The percentage may sound low, but the finding suggests that thousands of hip patients eventually require a second operation, said Dr. Malchau. Those patients must endure additional recoveries, often painful, and increased medical expenses.
The failure rate should be lower, many experts agree. Sweden, for instance, has a failure rate estimated to be a third of that in the United States.
Sweden also has a national joint replacement registry, a database of information from which surgeons can learn how and why certain procedures go awry. A registry also helps surgeons learn quickly whether a specific type of implant is particularly problematic. “Every country that has developed a registry has been able to reduce failure rates significantly,” said Dr. Daniel Berry, chief of orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
A newly formed American Joint Replacement Registry will begin gathering data from hospitals in the next 12 to 18 months.
Meanwhile, if you are considering replacing a deteriorating knee or hip, here are some ways to raise the chances...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
By the time my hips need replacing, the whole procedure will be free.
I had a total hip replacement in 86’, still going strong
I was 33 at the time
Why did you need total hip replacement at such a young age?
Had a full knee replacement in 2008. Biggest mistake of my life. If you are overweight, lose some weight first. I should have done that instead.
I had mine done in 2003 at 48, the only thing I cant do is run
My mother had both hers done and one wore out in 7 years and the other wore out in 8.
She blames the obesity on the joint problems, but having watched her becoming more and more inactive over the last 20 years I think it is the other way around. Because of the obesity she has the joint problems.
She is having her hip done Sept 1st, and hopefully we can convince her to get out and walk just a little bit. She is not even 65 years old, and already needs handicap parking because of the constant pain.
Yes, but the line may be long.
>> By the time my hips need replacing, the whole procedure will be free.
> Yes, but the line may be long.
And if you’re over 60, white, or male, the line will grow longer in front of you as you wait.
Just watch...nobamacare will eliminate this “costly” procedure if you are retired and “unproductive”.
nobamacare = stay well or die.
Cement is evil.
I have joked that under Obamacare I would probably get an amputation, but would get to keep the knife to whittle my own peg leg.
I had a long talk with hubbys Orthopedic surgeon (he had some cartilage trimmed, will eventually need knee replacement) and he told me this:
The problem is not with the actual replacement joint failing. The problem is where the bone and the replacement joint meet. The foreign material in there touching the bone sets up an inflammatory reaction and the bone gradually pulls away from where it’s connected to the implant so the implant gets loose.
He said the joints themselves will go forever, where they meet, but the looseness problem can occur as soon as a year after surgery or may not happen ever. It depends on the patient and they really don’t know who will have the problems.
It does become a vicious circle after awhile.
Yeah, yeah, Sweden does it better. Apples and oranges. Sweden probably limits the procedure to only the ideal candidates. We had a doc where I worked in the 80s who, if you judged him purely on his success rate, he’d be a failure. Higher complication rate than any of the other doctors. If there were “pay for performance,” he’d have been drummed out of the hospital.
What doesn’t go into the statistics though is that a lot of physicians have excellent success rates purely because they limit their cases to the ones with the best chances. The doctor I referenced above loved to take on the difficult cases. He was probably the best surgeon on the whole university staff. He did the Jehovah’s witnesses who wouldn’t accept blood transfusions, the obese, the medically fragile. Of course he made sure his patients were informed of the risks, but generally it was risks they were willing to take to be able to live without pain.
I had to have both my hips replaced in 2003. Mostly because of some massive doses of steriods. Long story.
But my Doctor told me that I could not put weight on the leg for 4 weeks. The reason was because the blade that went into my leg was not glued or cemented. It had tiny holes in it. I’m thinking they scooped out the marrow and then inserted the blade in. But the marrow grew through the metal blade.
I have no trouble with it except I too can not run. I also drive an 18 wheeler and get in and out all the time. I had a wonderful Doc.
My doc isn't using cement and the bone will grow into the implant matrix.
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