Getting a New Knee or Hip? Do It Right the First Time

NY Times ^ | July 2, 2010 | LESLEY ALDERMAN

[sweetiepiezer]

Thanks Doc, you have the best pings. Appreciate your hard work.

[Reeses]

VOLUME MATTERS: A study published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 2004 found that patients receiving knee replacements from doctors who performed more than 50 of the procedures a year had fewer complications than patients whose surgeons did 12 procedures or fewer a year.

In France everyone is limited to a 32 hour work week, so I would think the surgeons don't keep their skills honed like a 60 hour/week surgeon. Obama now wants to greatly restrict medical intern hours, no more grueling work weeks to master the trade. This is to lower the bar to let more minorities become doctors. This can't be good for the future, when everything's "free" and anyone can become a surgeon, with equal pay for all, if they want to.

[Cold Heart]

My Glucosamine liquid has the C in it.

Glucosamine, MSM, Bromelain, Ester-C, Chondroiton, Mussel

I buy it by the gallon and me & my horse share. I use the spoon first:)

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

I doubt your Glucosamine has nearly enough Vit C. I take a minimum of 4 grams daily.

What about the poor horse having to go after you? Feed the horse first!! :)

[El Gato]

HORSESH*T!!! when I got my hip replaced the Ortho told me it was good for twenty yrs, of course, it is plastic on metal it may not last as only, but only 7 yrs that is not very long

No it isn't, but the article doesn't say they all need replacing in 7 years, just that a very few do. It's biology and engineering, no two people are identical. One would expect a few outliers in the time to failure graph.

My Ortho said he's never replaced a knee implant, and he's been doing them for 25 or 30 years. Every one he put in, in which the patient is still alive, is still working.

He encouraged me, unlike the previous ortho I'd been seeing ( who had both knees replaced himself, but then retired) to get the replacement(s) done first, then exercise and lose weight, not wait until I could lose some weight. The guy does a lot of knee and hip replacements, probably around 4-5 per week. I just wish, as does he, that we could have done both of mine at once. But there was no clear indication the left one needed it. Not even an MRI showed that much damage. But when he got in to take a look, the meniscus had a huge flap tear, not repairable. So, once the first one is sufficiently healed up, I'll be back on the table for the second one.

[El Gato]

I am soon having a joint lubricant injection that I hope will hold off my having surgery for a while. My orthopedic doctor also recommended taking glucosamine and condroitin which surprisingly helps if you take them long term.

It can, but not so much if you already bone on bone. Go to one of those on your brother's list. Listen to him, and I think You'll get it done. I say that as one who is only two weeks (tomorrow) into recovery from that "major surgery" (which it is). Try to see that they use a continuous motion machine after the surgery. It helps a lot with initial range of motion. Just before they released me, on Friday after a Tuesday surgery, I was well over 80 degrees. Now I'm 110. (Which is all that they "require", but my other leg does 130, so that the goal for both). I'm only a degree or two from being able to completely straighten it as well. Some of that, especially on the "bend" side, is the skin pulling on the scar, which still has the stables in it (until Wednesday this week).

[neverdem]

Obama now wants to greatly restrict medical intern hours, no more grueling work weeks to master the trade. This is to lower the bar to let more minorities become doctors.

If they are already interns or residents, they are doctors already. They already have their degrees.

How does Obama want to restrict medical intern or first year resident hours? BTW, this is called postgraduate medical education.

[kcvl]

“My orthopedic doctor also recommended taking glucosamine and condroitin which surprisingly helps if you take them long term.”

Actonel is in a group of medicines called bisphosphonates (bis FOS fo nayts). It alters the cycle of bone formation and breakdown in the body. It slows bone loss while increasing bone mass, which may prevent bone fractures.

Actonel is used to treat or prevent osteoporosis in men and women. Actonel is also used to treat Paget’s disease of bone.

Actonel is only part of a complete program of treatment that may also include diet changes, exercise, and taking calcium and vitamin supplements.

Actonel has approval to reduce fractures at vertebral and nonvertebral sites (hip, wrist, pelvis, clavicle, leg, humorous)

http://tinyurl.com/2czo6y3

[Reeses]

How does Obama want to restrict medical intern or first year resident hours?

My mistake. Lowering the bar on interns is not yet an Obama policy: Bloomberg: New Doctor Intern Inspections to Cost Hospitals $15,000 Yearly

Hospitals will be required to reduce physician interns’ working hours and be inspected yearly to ensure the first-year doctors are properly supervised and getting enough time off under newly proposed rules.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, a nonprofit organization that evaluates more than 8,800 U.S. residency programs, outlined the proposed policies in a paper published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The procedures would trim the length of time interns can be on call to 16 hours from 30 previously and require greater supervision of the new doctors.

Long schedules for interns, medical school graduates in their first year of hospital training, were once a rite of passage, with reports that some new doctors worked 140 hours a week. In July 2003, the accreditation council restricted intern working hours to no more than 80 a week and 30 at one stretch after a 1999 Institute of Medicine report found medical errors claimed 44,000 to 98,000 lives annually.