A: Listen to your body.
Are you suffering from joint pain in your hip, knee or shoulder? Do you experience pain walking or squatting? Is your shoulder motion being restricted by pain? Have you tried non-surgical approaches, such as exercising, stretching, losing weight, taking anti-inflammatory medications or even steroid injection, to relieve the pain, but they just aren’t working?
If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you should probably talk to your primary care provider or an orthopedic surgeon about joint replacement surgery. This surgery replaces a joint with an artificial part made of metal, polyethylene, ceramics or a mix of materials. Joint replacement is a very common procedure, with about one million hip and knee replacements performed each year in the United States.
In addition to discouraging and debilitating pain, there are other reasons to consider joint replacement surgery:
- Your doctor says that less complicated surgeries are unlikely to help
- You have a long history of osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis
- You are suffering severe side effects from the medications you are taking to relieve the pain
- You have significant joint damage
What to Expect
On average, a joint replacement surgery takes about two hours and is performed under general anesthesia. Once the surgery is complete, physical therapy starts almost immediately. On the day of the surgery, you will be standing and walking in the hospital. Once you return home, most patients have outpatient therapy in their home for several weeks. Slowly, as your muscles strengthen and your range of motion improves, you will start to see real improvement. The time it takes to fully recover depends on the type of joint replacement procedure, but every person is different.
- Hip: Two to four weeks
- Knee: Two to three months
- Shoulder: Three months
Sources: Harvard Health Publishing