Hip Replacement Complications

… Continued …

1. Coughing with unknown reason.
2. Difficulty breathing, it may strike suddenly or come gradually.
3. And pain of the chest that typically will get worse when you take a breath.

For deep vein thrombosis, the symptoms may include:

1. The area where the blood clot occurs can be warmer than usual.
2. The affected leg where it occurs can be stiff, tender, and painful. These symptoms are commonly felt in the calf.
3. The affected area can be heavily aching, too.

Like blood clots, this complication is fortunately also rare in hip replacement (HR) surgery. Nevertheless, the chance of developing infection after surgery should not be underestimated since there is always a small chance for a bacterial infection to occur around the artificial component.

Keep monitoring all of the symptoms that you experience. If you have infection, the following are the symptoms that may present:

1. The hip can be painful. It may persist even though when you get rest.
2. Unusual discharge of liquid that comes out from the area of surgery.
3. Chills that may come with shaking.
4. The site of surgery can be swelling and redness.
5. High fever – about ‘100.4 degrees of Fahrenheit’ or higher.

Along with the development of new methods and techniques in HR surgery, the risk of getting complication from surgery decreases and the successful rate increases. However, it’s also much better to choose the best surgeon in your local area!

An interesting finding shows that the number of how many surgeries performed by surgeons can affect the successful rate.

The risk of complications decreases significantly in cases of HR surgery performed by surgeons who do the surgery about three or more per month (about 35 times HR surgeries per year). This finding released in the journal BMJ!

It seems that if you do more of something, then there will be greater chance of getting better outcome at it. A surgeon tends to have more precise to perform procedures – this might be reflected in the number of her /his practice!

And since infection can be a serious complication, the risk of infection should be controlled as well. Ask your specialists or surgeons about the preventive steps they can provide to prevent infection during and after surgery!