Get Hip: An Alternative to Hip Replacement

There’s a good reason the average age of people who choose hip replacement is 66. The operation requires the removal of so much bone that it’s hard to replace a hip more than one time, which means that if a replaced hip wears out, the hipster could end up spending a lot of time sittting down.  And even with the best of modern technology, patients can expect to get only 10 to 20 years out of their new hips.
Now, the Washington Post reports, there is an option, one that is better suited to younger people who needs hips that are going to keep on walking for more than a decade or two.  It’s called hip resurfacing, and it involves sanding down worn ball-and-socket joints and re-covering both with smooth metal caps. Hip resurfacing is still major surgery.  In fact, the surgery takes longer than hip replacement and the recovery period is also longer than the recovery period for replacement. The big advantage, the Post tells us, is that when the new surfaces wear out, patients can then go in for the complete replacement and get another 10 or 20 years of locomotion. And how long is it until the surfaces wear down? that, the paper says, in an unknown, although doctors quoted in the piece are hoping for 20 or 30 years. Read FAQs.