Hip Replacement Alternatives - surgical and non-surgical options

Home: Hip Replacement Alternatives

Hip Problems
Surgical and Non-Surgical Options

What are the best hip replacement alternatives? The answer to that will depend on your individual circumstances particularly on:- hip pain

your diagnosis
how far advanced your condition is
how much it is affecting you. (How much it is limiting your mobility or causing you pain)
your age
other relevant medical conditions e.g. osteoporosis

In some cases, like mine, your condition will be too far advanced for other options to be feasible and a hip replacement will be your best choice The two types of hip replacement alternatives can be split into: conservative management, which is aimed at delaying the need for surgery and, in a few cases may be so effective that you might chose to forgo the operation altogether. and alternative surgical techniques. Conservative Management can be divided into

hip pain relief - I strongly recommend using a pain diary to help monitor symptoms.
disease modifying medication
hip exercise
weight loss - losing weight can relieve the pressure from your damaged joint.

Alternative surgical techniques include

hip resurfacing

femoral osteotomy

Following the links above should provide you with sufficient information to hold an informed discussion with your consultant. It is only through such discussion that you can feel confident that you are making the best decision for yourself.

Please note I haven't added any information about arthrodesis or nutrition.

Arthrodesis (joint fusion) used to be offered to hip patients to relieve intractable pain. With the amazing progress that has been made in hip replacement and hip resurfacing it is now only used as a treatment of last resort when a hip replacement has failed

Nutrition and supplements - there are any amounts of claims that this or that diet or this or that supplement help relieve either osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis - most of them have little or no evidence to support them. For instance a recent study (September 2010) which reviewed 10 other studies concluded that there is no evidence that glucosamine or chondroitin have any effect other than a placebo one. However many users of these supplements would totally disagree. This is an area I will be looking into more deeply next year.