Hip Joint Prosthesis

The most common reason for hip replacement surgery is osteoarthritis, which describes a severe wear of cartilage covering the bones. Senior and middle age patients are most commonly affected, but there is also a fair number of younger patients with congenital hip dysplasia. This means an abnormal antomy of the hip joint and leads to precocious wear.

Previous injuries such as bone fractures and severe luxations can also result in deformation and thus degenerative wear of the joint.

Another reason for deformation and wear of the hip joint is avascular necrosis. In this disease a decreased blood circulation of the femoral head leads to central necrosis, with progressing desease the femoral head can collaps. In the end a very painful mechanical dysfunction of the joint becomes manifest. Long term cortisone use, bone fractures and malpositions of the hip and alcohol abuse are some of the causes for avascular necrosis. In many cases the origin is undetermined.

If the hip joint is stiff and painful this will impair the joint function significantly and affect your daily activity, consequently you`ll adopt a relieving posture. As a result the spine and the knee joints suffer overloading which in turn leads to painful wear. Over time your night´s rest will be disturbed, your qualitiy of life will be affected.

Non-operative treatment such as physiotherapy and analgetics ( pain medication )may help for a while. Failing all of that, surgical intervention is the only alternative to regain normal painless function and save the spine and knees from further damage.

In this operation the damaged parts of your hip joint will be replaced by a suitable artificial prosthesis.The durability of the present modern prosthesis is up to 30 years.

One day after surgery the patient will stand up and walk with the assistance of an expert physiotherapist, using a walker or crutches. Normally, beeing on your way to recovery, you will be discharched from hospital 4-5 days after operation, the recovery normally takes 4 to 6 weeks.