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Hip Replacement Alternatives
Surgical and Non-Surgical Options

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

• Your diagnosis
• How far advanced your condition is
• How much it is affecting you.
• Your age
• Other relevant medical conditions e.g. osteoporosis
• Financial considerations

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

Types of Hip Replacement Alternatives

These can be split into two types:

Conservative management, which is aimed at delaying the need for surgery and, in a few cases may be sufficient for you to manage for many years

and

Alternative surgical techniques - which may provide a short or a long-term solution.

Conservative Management

• 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

• Hip resurfacing
• Femoral osteotomy
• Hip arthroscopy
• Stem cell treatment - cartilage repair

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.

Other Possibilities

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.

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