Jane's Hip Replacement Surgery

My mom is having non-traditional hip replacement (as described below from the Cedar-Sinai website) on Friday, July 17th at a Cleveland Clinic Hospital called Hillcrest. If you'd like additional information, please read the details that follow. That helps avoid repeating these details over and over to various folks.

Please pray for her, my father, my brother (Ric), and Donna as they care for her and household duties post-surgery. Donna is her good friend, and a former nurse.

Total Hip Replacement: A Minimally Invasive Procedure

This is a high-technology, minimally invasive hip replacement surgery technique that can significantly reduce overall surgery trauma and recovery time. The procedure, called the MIS 2-Incision Hip Replacement, involves the use of two small incisions, 1 ½ to 2 inches long - one over the buttock and the other in the groin. With two incisions, surgeons have the advantage of being able to optimize access to both the socket and the femur with minimal soft tissue trauma and no cutting of the tendon.

The small incisions enable the surgeon to see the hip joint from two different angles and maneuver smaller instruments within the small spaces. Tiny fiber-optic lights guide very small surgical instruments, in order to place the ball and socket joint prosthetics very precisely between muscles, tendons, and ligaments. This avoids having to cut through soft tissue. The rounded head of the thigh-bone, or femur is then cut off, and the arthritic bone is removed from the socket. The ball and socket are then replaced by two prosthetic devices, which are tightly fitted into the bone of the femur and the pelvis.

Benefits of the minimally invasive procedure trypically include:

• Patients experience less pain after surgery due to less manipulation and more precise placement.
  
• Eliminates the amount of cutting we have to do to replace the hip joint, patients recover more quickly
• Hospital stay is typically 2 days versus 4 to 6 days.
  
• Less time is need for rehabilitation therapy
  
• Return to work and normal activities usually within a couple of weeks versus up to month or more.
  

With traditional hip replacement, surgeons cut a six to 12-inch incision along the thigh, cutting through the muscle and tendon, to reach the hip joint, causing more blood loss. In addition, surgeons performing traditional hip replacement must dislocate the hip by pulling the leg into an extreme position, which causes additional soft tissue trauma.
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My mom has been in a lot of pain and has had limited mobility for months due to a bone-on-bone hip situation. We are all looking forward to her being back to a pain free, active life style again in a month or so. She is 85 years old and passed both stress tests she was given to qualify for the procedure.

Glen is scheduled to have some cutting done this day as well, to get "clear margins" on a face spot. He is expected to walk again within hours of the procedure. None the less, still gets you a little nervous!