Choosing to have hip surgery can be a difficult decision that includes a lot of fear and confusion weighing you down. Whether you are the patient or you are helping a loved one prepare for their procedure, you will want to make sure you have thorough and accurate information.

The easiest way to sort out the facts is to talk to your doctor. Before scheduling a consultation, prepare yourself with some questions and review some of the most common myths associated with hip replacement surgery.

Only One Option

With most ailments, there are innumerable ways to approach healing. Surgery should not be your first choice but rather your last, making sure you have exhausted all of your other options.

Once you and your doctor settle on surgery, there are still several approaches to hip replacement including the minimally invasive posterior approach, direct anterior approach, and arthroscopies. What worked for friends and family might not be right for you. The best techniques vary from person to person. Work with your doctor to choose a method that meets your needs.

Replacing a Hip Due to Injury

It is common for people to draw a connection between injury and surgery. While fractures and broken bones can require a replacement, most hip replacement surgeries are in response to degenerative disorders like arthritis.

If you find yourself in constant pain that hinders your daily activities or you have a condition that is worsening, it is probably best to consider surgery.

Waiting Until You Can’t Walk

Some folks think of surgery as an extreme measure to deal with a severe ailment. In their mind, if they are only experiencing mild pain it is best to put off seeing a doctor, much less undergo surgery.

On the contrary, the reasonable thing to do is consult with a hip pain doctor. If the pain is affecting your daily routine, surgery may be a viable option.

Avoiding Physical Activity

Pain often convinces patients that they should remain as sedentary as possible to avoid further injury. In actuality, building up muscle, working on flexibility, and losing weight are all great ways to prepare for surgery.

Having maintained your physical health before surgery significantly helps with the recovery process after, placing less stress and strain on your body and allowing it to comfortably adjust to your new hip.

Good as New

Many people believe surgery solves their aches and pains immediately. While a new joint can be life-changing, it does not instantly solve all of your problems. You will be excited by your new lease on life, but it is essential to the healing process that you ease back into activities.

After surgery, your doctor will set you up with a healing plan that includes a gradual increase in activity paired with physical therapy. If you follow this regime in the months after your surgery, you will be up and around before you know it.

There are a number of knowledgeable orthopedic doctors in Sioux Falls SD ready to answer your questions today!

If you’ve ever had hip pain treatment, you know that it can be painful and invasive. No matter how great your hip doctor is, it can be difficult to get treated for hip and joint pain without going through a lot of painful surgery and long recovery times. However, in many cases, surgery isn’t the only way to reduce the pain. If your Sioux Falls orthopedic doctor or clinic recommends less invasive surgical options, it’s always worth it to learn more. Having a less invasive treatment could help reduce joint pain without putting you through long recovery times and tons of physical therapy. If you’re trying to minimize hip pain without undergoing an expensive, drawn-out procedure, here are a few alternatives to ask your doctor about.

Arthroscope Surgery

A few years ago, it used to require an open surgery simply to see what was going on inside the surgical site before any procedure could be performed. Today, thanks to a small device called an arthroscope, doctors can get a crystal clear image of your hip injury using only the smallest incision. The arthroscope doesn’t just work as a camera. Once inserted, it can do the work of shaving off obtrusive bone, removing shards of broken bone, as well as stitching up muscle or joint tears. If the problem requires open surgery, the arthroscope will be able to show doctors exactly what’s needed to resolve the problem. The small tool is able to fix a host of problems without creating the need for open surgery and long, drawn-out recovery times. Using the smallest of incisions and the most precise possible tools and treatment, arthroscope surgery is able to take care of labral tears, cartilage injuries, and floating bodies without forcing patients to spend tons of time recovering in the hospital.

Robotically-Assisted Surgery

Thanks to advances in technology, certain surgeries can be streamlined with the help of “smart” implants and robotic assistance. Using a hyper-precise arm that the surgeon guides during the procedure, robotically-assisted surgery can help the doctor get into small, hard-to-reach areas to perform extremely delicate operations. This doesn’t just increase the precision of any given procedure, it allows the wound site to heal that much faster due to the minimally-invasive nature of the surgery. Certain smart implants, such as robotic hip implants, can even adjust themselves to perfectly align with the bone and muscle during surgery, unlike traditional implants, which can shift and dislodge after a surgical site is closed up.

Small Incisions

Both minimally invasive surgery and robotically-assisted surgery are ideal for patients who don’t want to deal with a lot of healing and recovery time. Using small, precise incisions to treat hip injuries, both surgery types allow for extremely fast healing without a lot of physical therapy and rehab needed. While hip injuries are still to be taken seriously and given a lot of time to heal, creating smaller incisions allows patients to get back to normal more quickly, and without as much of the residual pain and stiffness that traditional open surgery creates.

Whether you’re an orthopedic hip specialist or someone suffering from joint pain, you don’t need to be an expert to understand the enormous impact that hip pain can have on how you live your life. Fortunately, thanks to improved technology in hip pain treatment, sufferers can get a new lease on life by undergoing robotic hip replacement. While it might sound like a serious step, some of the best Sioux Falls orthopedic surgeons will tell you that when it comes to stopping hip pain in its tracks, few treatments are more effective in the long term than replacement, especially for long-term sufferers. If you’re still not convinced, here are a few ways in which robotic hip replacement can help anyone dealing with serious joint pain.

Extreme Precision
Robotic hip replacement uses modern technology to create the most precise, low-risk hip replacement procedure possible. After an initial CT scan, your doctor is able to access a 3D layout of the area to plan out the scenario before starting the procedure. This creates a much more precise, detailed process that leaves nearly zero room for error. By planning out the surgery beforehand, doctors are able to create a blueprint of the procedure in advance, getting access to details and possible complications that before could only be seen during surgery.

Speedy Recovery
The precision of the robotic implant doesn’t stop at the initial scan. The procedure uses all the information from your scan to figure out exactly how much damaged tissue exists in the area. Using this information, your surgeon will be able to spare as much healthy tissue as possible. This will help your body heal faster and adapt to your implant much more easily over time. Many patients are even able to start moving around a few days after the surgery without risk of pain or loosening. Your implant will be placed in a way that helps your body move more naturally with the implant due to the precision of the procedure. Rather than creating too much stress on the body by placing the implant in an approximated area, the robotic implant will be able to take the exact place of your natural hip.

A “Smart” Implant
Since robotic technology allows surgeons to more precisely “place” the implant in the body before the procedure, the traditional issues of hip replacement surgery, including looseness and length irregularity, are virtually canceled out. The implant is able to receive information in real time, allowing for a precise placement in the body that nearly eliminates the failure rate. The interactive technology creates a significant change in the way the procedure is undergone: Where previous implants were generic and unable to be matched to the specifics of a patient’s body, newer technology allows for a virtually flawless fit that makes the normal issues of hip implants, such as loosening or straining, far less of a possibility. With more bone tissue left to create a natural cocoon for the implant and less possibility of a poorly-matched or loosely-placed implant during surgery, the robotic implant is able to mimic the replaced hip joint with stunning precision.

If you’re on the fence about hip surgery, you’re not alone. When it comes to hip pain, many older adults prefer to wait it out and try medication rather than instantly consulting with an orthopedic hip specialist about surgical options. However, many older adults feel trepidation about surgery for hip pain, getting total hip replacement can often be the best way to alleviate pain in the long run. Most Sioux Falls orthopedic surgeons will tell you that if you’re trying to get relief from hip injury or chronic pain, delaying surgery might provide the opposite effect. If you want to know whether or not hip replacement surgery is right for you, here are a few telltale signs.

Pain in the Groin Area
Even if your hip pain begins in a less central place, the worse the pain and deterioration gets, the more it will expand, eventually reaching the groin area. This can make it difficult to walk, sit, or even sleep without a lot of discomfort. The inflammation will cause stiffness in your joints, which will make it harder to perform everyday activities the longer it goes untreated. For this reason, hip replacement surgery is recommended sooner rather than later.

Joint Deterioration
One of the worst symptoms of hip arthritis and joint pain is the sensation of bones grinding through cartilage. This exposes your nerves to a ton of pain and doesn’t give your bones the padding they need to function correctly without causing you to suffer. You’ll be able to tell if your joint cartilage has worn down through an X-ray. However, you’ll be able to feel the pain long before then. To protect your bones, speak to your doctor before the pain gets too intense.

Problems Sleeping
Chronic pain isn’t just hard to deal with during the day. If you’ve been suffering from hip pain for a long time, you’ll already know what a struggle it is to get the pain to subside before bed. If it’s really bad, it will often wake you up in the middle of the night or prevent you from falling into a deep sleep in the first place. This isn’t just unpleasant and tiring. Pain that won’t go away can stop you from getting the amount of restorative sleep you need, impairing your mental health and well-being.

Inability to Resume Normal Activities
Even if your joint pain isn’t bad at first, there may come a time when performing day-to-day activities such as walking around, getting to work, and even doing basic exercises becomes too painful to endure. If you find you’re missing a ton of work, taking lots of sick days, and aren’t able to honor social or personal commitments that are important to you, you’ve reached a point where the pain is starting to take over your life. Even if you’re on medication that helps with the pain, it might not be protecting your joints from deteriorating further. At that point, it’s best to look into hip replacement surgery so you don’t have to keep pressing pause on your life.