— Terry from Peru
Education
PREVENTION
Maintenance of a healthy body weight can reduce your risk of arthritis, not to mention other more life threatening diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
Eliminating unhealthy diet habits and adding low impact exercises to your daily life can also help reduce your risk.
TREATMENTS
Although there is not yet a cure for arthritis, there are many non-surgical and surgical options to treat the disease. These include:
- Rest and/or activity modification
- Heat and cold therapy
- Stretching and strengthening of the muscles around the joints affected through physical therapy to avoid/treat stiffness associated with arthritis
- Anti-inflammatory medications
- Bracing
- Steroid injections
- Viscosupplementation injections
- Joint Replacement Surgery
If you find that the pain prevents you from doing the activities you enjoy most, and medical treatments have failed to adequately relieve your pain, it may be time to see one of our orthopedic surgeons.
The main goals and benefits of joint replacement surgery are to:
- Relieve pain
- Restore motion
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
In 2004, approximately half a million hip and knee replacement surgeries were performed.
Yet despite enjoying a very high success rate, some patients still have concerns and questions. Some of the most common surround:
- How much pain should I expect after surgery?
- How long will it take to rehab?
- When can I go back to work?
- When can I drive?
- How long will my new joint replacement last?
- What are the newest technologies?
How much pain should I expect after surgery?
We use the latest techniques in anesthesia that not only allow you to wake after surgery without any pain, but give you lasting pain relief for up to 48 hours.
This minimizes the use of narcotic medications during this period, and means less grogginess, nausea, and constipation – all common side effects of these medications.
As a result, you are able to participate in physical therapy as early as the day of your surgery, and you can expect to be discharged from the hospital after two or three days.
How long will it take to rehab?
Total joint replacement rehabilitation can take anywhere from four to 12 weeks.
However, you are able to walk with crutches or a walker the day of your surgery, manage stairs by the second day, and return home by the third day in most cases.
Once you arrive home, we will have a physical therapist visit you three to five days/week for three weeks to help you along with your rehabilitation.
The more diligent you are with your therapy, the quicker you will improve.
Your ability to return to work depends on what you do and how quickly you heal and rehabilitate. Some patients return as early as two weeks, but most need six to 12 weeks off.
When can I drive?
If your left leg has been operated on and you drive an automatic transmission, you can return to driving as soon as you have finished all of your narcotic medication.
If your right hip or knee has been operated on, it generally takes about six weeks for your normal brake reflexes to return.
How long will my new joint replacement last?
The longevity of a joint replacement is limited by wear of the new joint. The rate at which the artificial joint wears depends on several factors:
- The type of material used in the implants
- The precision of the alignment with which the joint replacement was surgically implanted
- The “mileage” you put on the new joint
With modern implants and techniques, surgeons hope to have total joints last the rest of your life.
What are the newest technologies?
At Methodist Sports, our fellowship-trained joint replacement surgeons employ state of the art anesthesia, surgical techniques, and proven implants.
These allow us to provide the safest and most durable implants while improving pain and function. Some of the newest technologies we use include:
- Computer assisted surgical navigation
- Less invasive surgery
- Birmingham Hip Resurfacing and Replacement
- Gender specific total knee replacements
- Unicompartmental or Partial knee replacement
