What are My Alternatives to Hip Replacement Surgery?

Dr. Albright discusses alternatives to hip replacement surgery.

Transcript of video:
What are my alternatives to hip replacement surgery?

My name is Dr. Dan Albright at the Raleigh Orthopedic Clinic in Raleigh, NC. And I regularly see patients with hip arthritis, hip problems, and people who need hip replacements someday.

But there are other things you can do first and should do first before any surgery.

The first thing is to adjust your activities. Meaning if you are a marathon runner and you are getting some early arthritis, pounding on your hip is not the best thing to do.

Swimming is good. Biking is good. The elliptical trainer is good. Some weights are good. But high-impact pounding is not good for a
joint that is wearing out. It's going to wear it out quicker. You'll lose your cartilage quicker.

So adjust your life. Which is upsetting sometimes, but you want to scale it down to lower impact things and you want to tone up. If you have good muscle tone your joints just move better.

Keeping your weight down is a good thing and that's a whole other separate topic. Of course, it's hard to lose weight. But losing weight helps joint pain. No question it helps foot pain, knee pain, hip pain.

Anti-inflammatories have a role if your doctor says you can take them. Some people have kidney disease or stomach troubles and cannot take anti-inflammatory medicines like ibuprofen, Aleve, Naprosyn, aspirin. Tylenol is also a choice that is not an anti-inflammatory so you can do that. That goes well with people with kidney troubles
or stomach troubles.

Shots. Steroid shots have a role so you can get a cortisone steroid shot. That definitely helps people for a good while.

These are some of the basics. And think about the basics because you want to put off hip replacement surgery for as long as you can. These replacements only last 20 years or so. And you want to try everything else first and postpone surgery as best you can.

If you are interested I am happy to speak with you at any time at The Raleigh Orthopedic Clinic. I'm happy to have you come in for a consult and talk about non-operative treatments for hip arthritis and talk about surgery, as needed if you come to that.

Thank you.

[barnabasobande]

The hip issues I'm having is Avascular Necrosis and the specialist says it's hip replacement. But I'm in search for an alternative except if I don't find maybe then I'll settle for the replacement

[robertlee]

I was just told on 9/15/20 that I need a total hip replacement & i, m only 47 . I told the doctor that it was not a option . The reason I told him that was because when I was younger I had a surgery to correct bi lateral club feet & they used staples & screws to hold bone in place, they were to be in my bones the rest of my life but my body rejected them & it was starting to make me sick so they had to remove them, now what if they do the hip replacement & the same stuff happens I, ll lose my entire leg & that’s not going to happen . My uncle told me that my doctors are there to help me manage my pain levels & they can give me drugs to do so but if they don, t I have friends in low places that can get me the drugs I need & I will take them how there prescribed if need be . I’ve had well over 35 surgeries in my lifetime & more than my share, now I’m doing exercises twice a day & taking prescription drugs to help manage the pain . I don’t care if I need a total hip replacement your not going to shorten my lifespan by doing so, The bad outweighs the good when it comes to total hip replacement, I’ll walk in this fucker until I can’t walk anymore or it falls off or they cut it off one of the three, i, m to young to let a doctor tell me I need a total hip replacement sorry about your luck doc & he had the nerve to give me one of his business cards like I, m coming back to him if I can’t stand the pain so he’ll do the replacement . My physical therapist told me that they can do a Orthoscopic surgery on it to repair it some what but it’s not going to stop it . All in all I’m not doing it & I, ll deal with the pain the best way I know how, BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY .

[midas]

This makes no sense. If your in pain and know it's a hip and nothing helps why not do a total hip? Why would anyone suggest prolonging the pain? Worst case you have to do a revision of you Outlast a total hip replacement. How is remaining in pain even considered a treatment?