Hip Replacement - Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Our medical malpractice lawyers deal with Hip Replacement negligence cases. If you would like legal advice at no cost and with no further obligation just call the helpline or complete the contact form or email our lawyers offices. Our Hip Replacement medical malpractice lawyers usually deal with personal injury compensation cases on a contingency basis which means that you only pay your lawyers legal fees if the case is won.

Hip Replacement - Medical Malpractice

A hip replacement may be necessary if a person breaks their hip and damages the acetabular fossa of the joint. It may also have to be replaced if a person has degeneration and arthritis of the hip with pain that is too severe to properly get around. There are many benefits from a hip replacement surgery but there are some limitations. You may not walk around as easily as you thought you might, you may suffer from recurrent hip dislocations if the acetabular fossa is too shallow and you may have an outright failure of the hip replacement. For example, the DePuy hip replacement mechanism has recently been recalled due to a 12 percent failure rate with breakdown of the device long before it is expected to break down.

Doctors try anti inflammatory pain medication first or other pain medication in order to control pain and inflammation of the damaged hip before considering surgery. If these do not work, you are likely a candidate for hip replacement surgery. It was a surgical procedure first performed in 1960. Currently about 200,000 hip replacement surgeries are performed per year by skilled orthopaedists. If done correctly and without failure or dislocation, you can resume your normal activities within a few months of the procedure.

The reasons behind getting a hip replacement include traumatic arthritis of the hip from a past injury, rheumatoid arthritis affecting the hip, osteoarthritis of the hip and a hip fracture that damages the hip so severely that it cannot be spared. You need to consider having a hip replacement surgery if hip pain limits your walking or bending activities, if you have stiffness that limits the mobility of the hip, if you have pain at rest, if you get little relief from pain medications, if you have side effects from pain medication or fail physical therapy to strengthen the muscles and ligaments around the joint.

An orthopaedist will evaluate you for a hip replacement surgery. You will have a complete history and physical examination focussing on the joints, especially the hip joints. An x-ray can be evaluated of the hips and the pelvis. The doctor may get an MRI of the hip if the regular x-ray does not identify the hip injury properly. The strength, mobility and alignment of the hip are fully evaluated.

When you have your hip surgery, you can expect to have a reduction in the pain you are experiencing from your damaged hip. You can expect to walk better but you may still need a cane or a walker. You probably will never be able to do high impact sports, such as jogging. If you are overweight, you should try to lose weight so that you can avoid wear and tear on the joint. There will always be some wear and tear of the artificial joint and they tend not to last forever.

Before you have hip replacement surgery, you will have a medical evaluation to make sure your heart, lungs, kidneys and liver can tolerate having major surgery. Blood will be done to see if you are anaemic. You may have a chest x-ray to determine that your lungs are clear and expand normally. An electrocardiogram can evaluate the heart before surgery. You may have to give blood before surgery in case you need a transfusion during the procedure. If you can lose weight before your hip replacement surgery, you should try to do this so that you can tolerate the procedure better. Bad teeth can adversely affect this type of surgery so you should see the dentist and have your teeth fixed before going ahead and having surgery.

You should get your home ready for hip surgery by having handrails installed in the bath, by having hand rails on the stairways, by having a raised toilet seat and a stable shower chair. You should have a shower hose and a long handled sponge for bathing your back and feet. You should get a special stick or grabber for putting on your clothes and for grabbing things. Your chairs, pillows and sofa should be firm and raised up enough for you to get out of them easily. Remove loose carpets and electrical cords you could trip over.

Your surgery should take a few hours and the orthopaedist removes the damaged cartilage and damaged bone before placing the femur portion of the hip into the marrow of the femur. Cement is often used to solidify the connection. The acetabulum can remain the same as it is or can be replaced with one that is made of silicone and metal. This creates a solid femur to pelvis connection that hopefully will last for many years.

The author of the substantive medical writing on this website is Dr. Christine Traxler MD whose biography can be read here