Hip Replacement Surgery for Younger Americans

When we think of hip replacement surgery we are typically think of senior citizens.  For the most part, that is who is getting hip replacement surgery.  However, as discussed in a recent article from Fox News, younger are people are getting a total hip replacement much more often than they have been in the past.

One patient interviewed as part of this article was man in his 40s who had been experienced tremendous pain in his hip. He had always lived what we would consider an active lifestyle and would run and engage in sporting activities on a regular basis.  When he went to his doctor to see what was wrong was him, his doctor apparently explained that he is excellent health for the most part, yet he has the hips of man 30 years older that he actually is. 

This is in part due what he describes as and active lifestyle, and in part due to the hip condition with which he was born that made it more likely he would develop a serious osteoarthritis condition as it what actually happened in his case.  When his doctor explained that a total hip replacement involved cutting out what was left of his natural hip and replacing it with an artificial hip that was constructed out of metal and plastics, he said he felt very worried.  This is understandable since this is by no means a minor operation.

However, his doctor told him that he could use a relatively new process that involved making an incision in the front of the hip rather than the side.  This means that surgeons can push the large groups of muscles out of the way instead of simply cutting through them which is how the operation traditionally was performed.  Since the doctor does not cut the large muscle groups, the recovery is expected to go a lot smoother.

The reason the recovery is expected to go a lot smoother is because without any damage to the muscle, the patient will be in much less pain and discomfort, and even more importantly, will be able to get up and walk around the same day.  This allows the surgery to be completed in an outpatient capacity, which is much safer for patient for two reasons.  The first reason is that by getting out of the hospital sooner, the patient will be able to avoid more significant chances of getting a serious infection from a long hospital stay, and the patient will not have to worry as much as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) caused by blood clots forming deep in the veins of the legs.

This patient said following the surgery, he was home and walking around that same day and is now about 80 percent back to how he was before the pain started.  While it is not a perfect cure, it is much better than the pain he was experiencing before the surgery.  However, as our Boston hip replacement accident attorneys have seen in multiple cases, if the artificial hip itself was defectively designed, there is a good chance the device will fail and the patient will require additional surgery to fix the many problems that can occur.

If you are the victim of Massachusetts product liability, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.

Additional Resources:

Younger people are turning to surgery for joint replacement, April 6, 2016, Fox News, By Beth Galvin

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