Boomers: It’s not your Grandma’s hip replacement surgery

Newswise — Danny McIntire will be the first to tell you that hip replacements aren’t just for grandmas anymore.

A guitarist in a rock-and-roll band and avid sky diver, 54-year-old McIntire doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon. And thanks to recent hip replacement surgery, he won’t have to.

Advancements in hip replacement – from the procedure itself to the variety of hip prostheses available and shortened recovery times – have more and more baby boomers like McIntire turning to surgery earlier in life to stay active and better their quality of life, says Andrew Urquhart, M.D., chief, Joint Reconstruction Service in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Michigan Health System.

“Hip replacements were once reserved for the elderly, so younger adults with hips damaged by arthritis or past injury were told to wait to undergo replacement surgery until they were very old,” he says. “Baby boomers today, however, have higher expectations, and don’t want to let a damaged hip slow them down. They want to get back on the ski slopes, back on the jogging track and back to an active life.”

Every year, more than 300,000 hip replacement procedures are performed in the United States. With the procedure, the head of the leg bone, called the femur, and the hip socket are removed and replaced with an artificial joint that consists of a ball bearing.

One of the most common causes for hip replacement surgery is severe pain from osteoarthritis, which wears down of the hip joint and can limit mobility and significantly decrease a person’s quality of life, says Urquhart. Other candidates for hip replacement surgery often have rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory arthritis, and damage to the hip from a previous injury such as a motor vehicle accident, or osteonecrosis, a bone disease that essentially destroys the joint.

The pain and stiffness caused by osteoarthritis that developed after a past pelvic injury is what brought McIntire to Urquhart’s office to discuss hip replacement surgery.

“The pain got to a point where I stopped doing certain activities that I had done for years, and needed to plan other activities around what my hip would react to,” recalls McIntire. “I finally decided that I needed surgery after I had fallen down the steps a couple of times in a three- or four-week period and severely injured my muscles.

"After talking with my doctor, I just realized I couldn’t live like this anymore.”

Fortunately for McIntire, advances in hip replacement surgery have made the procedure less invasive and even shortened the length of time a patient needs to stay in the hospital following surgery.

At U-M, Urquhart and his team are working to develop a new navigation system, which will allow the surgeon to use a computer to help implant the new joint. Urquhart says with computer assistance and the use of better surgical instruments during the operation, he and his team will be able to implant hips and knees that will last well into the future.

Plus, Urquhart says the improved materials used for the artificial joint – ceramics, metals and newer plastics – hold the promise of providing a safer and longer-term solution to total hip replacement, especially for younger and more active patients. In fact, the ceramic used in some of the implants is so strong that testing has shown that it can withstand the weight of a small boat.

“I typically tell my patients that the prosthesis we give them has about a 98 percent chance of functioning well mechanically for at least 15 years, if not longer,” Urquhart notes.

But patients don’t have to wait long to test out their new hip. Urquhart says he has most of his patients up and moving either the afternoon of the surgery or early the next day.

“Hip replacement, while originally thought of as a massive operation requiring significant length of stay in the hospital and recovery, certainly doesn’t have to be that way,” he says. “Six weeks after the surgery, patients are getting around pretty well with little assistance, and after eight to 12 weeks, they’re back to their normal lives.”

Only two weeks after his surgery, McIntire was driving his car and walking with the assistance of a walker. He began physical therapy about six weeks later, lifting weights and even riding the exercise bike. And in about three months, McIntire started getting back to doing all of the things he had previously enjoyed.

As an added bonus, McIntire says his new hip even helped to improve his musical career with the Jim Tate Band, based in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“The artificial hip has allowed me to concentrate more on my playing and technical ability, rather than worrying about tripping over a wire on stage or needing to sit down while performing because of the pain,” he says. “I think having the hip replacement surgery was the best decision that I could have made. I’m kind of disappointed in myself that I didn’t do it sooner.”

For more information, visit these web sites:
UMHS Health Topics A-Z: Total Hip Replacement Surgery
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/aha/aha_tothip_sha.htm

UMHS Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
http://www.med.umich.edu/ortho/

UMHS Press Release: A hip alternative: Ceramic-on-ceramic hip implant let patients stay active longer
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2003/hipreplacement.htm

National Institutes of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases: Hip Replacement
http://www.niams.nih.gov/hi/topics/hip/hiprepqa.htm