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Newly replaced hip dislocated after 4 weeks.
Joint Replacements | Last Active: 2 days ago | Replies (9)Comment receiving replies
My surgeon, who invented the Superpath method, walked into the outpatient surgery center room with a multipage document from the hospital with the instructions on not crossing legs, etc. He tossed it in the waste paper basket and told me he had only two rules for me: (1) take my medicine (which we later agreed I didn't need and could stop) and (2) be a couch potato for the first five weeks because the one thing he can't do is make bones grow. So your return to exercise after two weeks may have been more at fault than your bending over. You didn't give your bones a chance to grow over the implant.
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Your comment about your surgeon and his two rules . . . after my hip replacement, my surgeon had two rules as well: ABSOLUTELY NO YOGA and NO RUNNING UNLESS SOMEONE WAS CHASING ME OR I WAS GETTING OUT OF A BURNING BUILDING! The hip replacement was done in October of 2015 and so far, so good! The hip replacement gave me my life back.
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Thanks for taking time to reply Steve. Those are interesting comments, especially your surgeon telling you to do nothing, even physical therapy, for 5 weeks after hip replacement.
There may be something to that. The anterior approach doesn't cut any muscles, so there is little to no chance of scar tissue forming. In that case, resting is fine. But hey, it's still a traumatic procedure and even after the incision has healed, there's a lot of healing going on inside.
As for giving the bones time to grow into the metal prostheses - that is important and probably takes years. And in the hip, the only metal that comes in contact with the bone is the acetabular cup where it connects to the pelvis, and the stem that is driven into the femur.
Anyway, I admit I was too eager to get back to the gym. But I believe the dislocation was due to the extreme ITB stretch I did - 1) right foot crossed over left (right hip was replaced) and 2) bending at the waist to put my palms on the floor, bending way past the recommended limit of 90 degrees. The instructions are clear - don't do these things.
Now if I hadn't been in the gym I wouldn't have had the injury. I don't think the dislocation was due to not giving the bone enough time to grow into the prostheses. I think the dislocation was due to my stubbornness and stupidity. My surgeon can't fix that.......
The whole idea that bone can grow into metal amazes me. I had both knees replaced in 2022, and I waited two months before returning to the gym. Knee replacement has a much longer recovery time than hip replacement.
(For those reading this who are learning about joint replacement - there are two types, cemented and cement less. If a patient has osteoporosis, degeneration of bones, the metal prostheses must be cemented in place. For patients with healthy bones, cement is not used. The metal prostheses have a microscopic and porous layer of metal where it touches bone. Over time, bone will grow into those pores, essentially bonding with the metal. Wild stuff.)
Thanks again Steve. Hope you are doing well.
Joe