What You Need To Know About Hip Revision Surgery

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), more than 300,000 hip replacements are performed every year in the United States. For the patients, these surgeries get rid of pain, restore mobility, and improve the overall quality of life. For total joint replacement, the average lifespan of the joint is 10 to 15 years. Statistically, hip replacement patients have a 90 to 95 percent chance of the joint lasting 10 years and an 80 to 85 percent chance of it lasting 20 years. When the joint fails, a second surgery – referred to as hip revision surgery becomes necessary. The question is – how much do you know about hip revision surgery?

How Does Someone Know They Need Hip Revision Surgery?

In most cases, hip replacement patients tend to become a candidate for revision surgery for one of five reasons. These reasons include:

The Implant Becomes Loose: After being inside of your body for a while, the implant may become loose or begin to wear out. When this happens it can be extremely painful.

An Accident: If you slip and fall, it is possible for you to cause damage to the bone near your hip replacement. If you fracture or break the point near the replacement joint, you may need a revision surgery.

Dislocated Hip: An orthopedic surgeon is not going to perform revision surgery because you dislocated your hip one time. If this, however, becomes habit, your surgeon may need to perform revision surgery to stop this from continuing to happen.

Infection: You run the risk of infection any time you have a surgery. This, unfortunately, is one of the more serious complications you have to worry about. If you end up getting an infection deep enough to be in your implant, the implant may need to be removed to get the infection out of your body.

The Implant Was Recalled: While it is rare, joint implants do get recalled from time to time. This happens when the implant is found to cause some sort of problem in those who have one. If the type of implant you have installed gets recalled, you will need to have a surgeon do the revision surgery to replace it with a different implant.

Is There Anything You Can Do To Limit These Complications?

Fortunately, there are things you can do to prevent a hip revision surgery from having to occur before those 10 to 20 years have passed. For starters, don't overuse the joint or participate in high-impact activities. Sports that involving jumping or sticking a hard landing are also a bad idea. Lastly, you need to maintain a healthy weight and schedule routine checkups to make sure everything looks good and is in working order.

As you can see, hip revision surgery is something individuals who have a hip replacement surgery may have to endure at some point in time during their life. If you are careful, however, you could get 10 or 20  years out of your joint implant before needing this kind of surgery. Consult with an experienced surgeon for more information.

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