Hip Replacement

Hip replacement surgery is often the only solution to the pain and disability conditions like arthritis can cause. If you can’t manage hip pain with conservative treatments, visit board-certified orthopaedic surgeon Karl Siebuhr, MD, and Jonathan Kletter, PA-C, at Reconstructive Orthopaedics of Central Florida in Ocala, Florida. They offer minimally invasive posterior and anterior hip replacement surgery that relieves pain and restores function. Call the office today for more information, or book a hip replacement evaluation online.

What conditions can a hip replacement treat?

The most likely reason you’d need a hip replacement is osteoarthritis. This common condition develops over time as the protective cartilage coating the bones in your joints wears away. The exposed bones catch and scrape on one another, and tiny pits roughen the bones.

A hip replacement might also benefit some people with rheumatoid arthritis, which develops when a flaw in the immune system destroys your joint linings. Other conditions hip replacement surgery can treat include severe hip fractures and osteonecrosis, where the bone’s blood flow stops and leads to bone death.

When should I consider a hip replacement?

Surgery is rarely the first treatment for hip pain — only if you have a severe fracture that’s not repairable any other way are you likely to undergo hip replacement straight away. The usual approaches are conservative treatments like physical therapy, medication, and injections of hyaluronic acid, platelet-rich plasma (PRP), or steroids.

While these treatments help most patients, they aren’t always effective. Or they may work well to begin with and become less effective as a disease like arthritis progresses. If nonsurgical treatments can’t ease your symptoms and you experience constant, disabling pain, hip replacement surgery could be the answer.

Your Reconstructive Orthopaedics of Central Florida surgeon discusses the choice between partial or total hip replacement and determines if you’re a good candidate for minimally invasive or robotic-assisted surgery.

What happens when I have hip replacement surgery?

With all procedures, the first stage is removing the damaged bone and cartilage and reshaping the healthy bone to ready it for the prosthetic joint implants. Reconstructive Orthopaedics of Central Florida’s surgeons perform both traditional posterior hip replacement (making the incision in your buttock) and anterior hip replacement, where the incision is in the front of your body.

If you have a partial hip replacement, your surgeon replaces the ball-shaped top of your leg bone (femoral head), leaving the socket (acetabulum) intact. With a total hip replacement, your surgeon replaces the hip socket with a metal cup. They place a plastic liner inside, insert a metal stem down the center of your thigh bone, and fit a metal ball on the stem.

The artificial components work in harmony to recreate your hip’s ball-and-socket movement. Your surgeon moves your leg to ensure you have the full range of motion and that the new joint fits properly.

Call Reconstructive Orthopaedics of Central Florida, or schedule a consultation online today, to discover how a hip replacement can eliminate pain and restore mobility.