Hip pain keeps many people from enjoying full and active lives. Yet some people are reluctant to undergo total hip replacement surgery because they want to avoid the postoperative pain and lengthy recoveries associated with very invasive surgery.

Traditional hip replacement surgery typically requires surgeons to make large (6- to 10-inch) incisions and to cut and stretch many of the tendons and muscles that surround the hip. It is common for patients to experience significant pain and to spend months recovering.

Only Here at LWRMC
Fortunately, there's a new option available at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center (LWRMC) that is much easier on patients. LWRMC is the only hospital in the Sarasota-Bradenton area that offers the advanced, tissue-sparing surgical technique called Percutaneously-Assisted Total Hip (PATH^®). This new technique allows surgeons to perform less invasive hip replacement procedures.

New Procedure: Less Pain, Shorter Recovery
During PATH procedures, surgeons make small (3.5-inch) incisions and use specialized instruments that allow them to reach the surgical site by cutting only one of the five tendons around the patient's hip and gently stretching the gluteus medius muscle. Then they use new hip prostheses designed by Wright Medical Technology, Inc. The prostheses have large heads that more closely resemble the patients' anatomy and removable necks that make it easier for doctors to insert the artificial hips through small incisions. This unique configuration is designed to help surgeons position and align the artificial hips more precisely.

While orthopaedic surgeons have been performing mini-incision procedures for some time, this new technology and technique is a further advancement in hip replacement surgery. Surgeons do less cutting and stretching of the tendons and muscles so patients do not have to endure lengthy and painful recoveries. They generally have no postoperative restrictions and much less risk of dislocation. And patients who undergo this new procedure usually have very positive results. Most of them are able to walk and drive within days and function normally within a matter of weeks.

Should You Consider Hip Replacement?
Do you suffer severe hip pain from causes such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, injuries, or bone tumors -- pain that just won't stop despite medication? If so, hip-replacement surgery may improve your life. During this procedure, a surgeon replaces the hip joint with an artificial one.

Your artificial hip should carry you around for at least 20 years or longer. Indeed, fewer than one in 10 hip replacements requires further surgery.

Once home, here's how to ease your recuperation period:

• Before the procedure, rearrange your furniture so you'll be able to get around with a walker or crutches.
• Sit in a firm chair with a high seat. Keep your affected leg extended straight in front of you on a footstool.
• Use devices such as a reacher and a long-handled shoehorn to keep from bending over too far.
• Ask your doctor when you can start exercising and what activities you can do, such as swimming and walking.
• Watch your weight. Extra pounds might put undue strain on your joints, both old and new.