Loosening of hip after a total hip replacement

I am so sorry to hear this! Absolutely the truth is you have to be your own advocate! I went through 20 years being at the wrong kind of doctor and neurosurgeon, before I was at an orthopedic surgeon; from there, I spent another four years fielding for surgeons before I found my Prince charming. In that delay, I suffered permanent nerve damage from the discs, falling completely out in my lumbar back and the bones grafting together. They had to be saw apart infused. My first orthopedic surgeon got mad at me and wouldn’t do the surgery. By the time I got to the fourth orthopedic surgeon, he told me that he did all the revisions for the surgeon that got mad at me! I carried around upset and insecurity for four years, and it was devastating to me. When a friend told me he was going to that first surgeon who was published, beloved by the local hospital, handsome, so he was on the local hospitals, television commercials-I set out to tell my friend don’t go to this guy, and I found a lawsuit against the first surgeon for neglect! By the grace of God I go and I was very lucky that that first surgeon did not do my surgery. Before that I had to complete hip surgeries after researching types of THR and reviews on surgeons. I had the best materials (which I didn’t even know at the time about materials. I was so busy, researching reviews and types of surgery that I didn’t know. Materials needed to be understood as well). I am very sorry you could not get good care for your wife, but don’t give up and keep going! When you mentioned “loose“ what I thought of was the possibility of not rest strengthening the adjacent muscles, which need to be very strong to help hold everything in place after the surgery. I wish you good luck on finding a great surgeon. If you are near San Diego, Ucsd has a great team of orthopedic surgeons that I can vouch for. They teach future doctors so they have to be good and they have a lot of experience and they’re not in it for the money.

Hopefully, no more hip surgeries here! I’m in Vermont!

I agree! Second opinion is the best! A surgeon doesn’t like to be questioned, it’s their reputation on the line. My wife had a total bilateral, surgeon come to me in waiting room, all went well, recovery should be out to get you in about 15 minutes…..5 hours later, I started getting very upset because no one had come to get me and most staff had gone home for the day. After I got on the phone and made it clear that I wanted to see my wife I was sent to another floor where they said my wife would be, get there, no one knew anything about her, went back to recovery and demanded an explanation, oh! She just went to her room, back to another floor I went and she was there. Black & Blue from head to toe. They attempted to get her up to walk, femur nerves was compressed or severed in left leg, had to place a mobilized brace in order to walk with help from a walker and two people at her side. Seven days in ICU and then transferred to rehab at Fanny Allen in Burlington Vermont. Second day there, dropped onto shower floor because attending physician omitted mobilizer on at all times in his written orders for the nurses. Wife in Constant pain and on heavy pain medication for 9 months. Finally, femur nerve starts to regenerate. Wife has X-ray of right hip, fractured pelvic, revision required ASAP. Her surgeon expresses, “ This Time, I will preform the surgery “‘ wife says, “ Who in the hell did it the first time, why was I black and blue from head to toe, even my breast were all bruised “; never did receive an answer. Well, revision was preformed, pain in groin area was intense, follow up showed Cobalt / Chromium poisoning and loose replacement on left hip; another revision recommended. The surgeon that supposedly did the first two operations had left the facility to another hospital to practice on patients, we followed to that hospital, he gave us the sense that he did not want to provide care to my wife. So, we went back to original hospital with a new surgeon; his last name was “Moschetti”. He preformed a revision on the left hip. Pain was consistent in her groin area; nothing really seemed to help. Four years go by and wife goes in for a routine follow up, blood test was preformed and What, Cobalt / Chromium levels dangerously elevated and two staph infection; complete hip implant removed from right side, port placed, 8 weeks in IV Antibiotics, revision preformed.
Update! Hips do not seem to be an issue…lower back, where they have placed several epidurals, degenerative bone disease. Of course they say it is not from the epidurals! Maybe not, who knows.
I share this for one real reason! You and only You know your body inside and out! My wife often say, had she had this to do all over again, she never would have had it done, I’m not so sure, she was in a lot of pain prior!
Not any one person took any responsibility for all that “WE” went through! I was working a full time job as was my wife prior to her first total Bilateral; which needless to say lead to her employer terminating her position.
You know your body better than anyone! Be loud and strong, you sense something wrong, stay on it until you feel you have been heard! A revision is not the end of the world and in fact, if there is something wrong with your current implant you will not heal completely because your internal organs are designed to reject something that is possibly harming your body!
Best of Luck!

I had hip replacement 6 years ago. Then this past summer my leg in the front would hurt a lot then in November my hip started squeaking, like a squeak toy. I ended up 3 days later having revision hip surgery. My plastic liner inside the cup had broken apart and the femur head was scraping the cup. This surgery seems harder to recoup from and hurt a lot. But it’s all good now. I hope all goes good for you and the pain goes away.

I am so sorry to hear this! Absolutely the truth is you have to be your own advocate! I went through 20 years being at the wrong kind of doctor and neurosurgeon, before I was at an orthopedic surgeon; from there, I spent another four years fielding for surgeons before I found my Prince charming. In that delay, I suffered permanent nerve damage from the discs, falling completely out in my lumbar back and the bones grafting together. They had to be saw apart infused. My first orthopedic surgeon got mad at me and wouldn’t do the surgery. By the time I got to the fourth orthopedic surgeon, he told me that he did all the revisions for the surgeon that got mad at me! I carried around upset and insecurity for four years, and it was devastating to me. When a friend told me he was going to that first surgeon who was published, beloved by the local hospital, handsome, so he was on the local hospitals, television commercials-I set out to tell my friend don’t go to this guy, and I found a lawsuit against the first surgeon for neglect! By the grace of God I go and I was very lucky that that first surgeon did not do my surgery. Before that I had to complete hip surgeries after researching types of THR and reviews on surgeons. I had the best materials (which I didn’t even know at the time about materials. I was so busy, researching reviews and types of surgery that I didn’t know. Materials needed to be understood as well). I am very sorry you could not get good care for your wife, but don’t give up and keep going! When you mentioned “loose“ what I thought of was the possibility of not rest strengthening the adjacent muscles, which need to be very strong to help hold everything in place after the surgery. I wish you good luck on finding a great surgeon. If you are near San Diego, Ucsd has a great team of orthopedic surgeons that I can vouch for. They teach future doctors so they have to be good and they have a lot of experience and they’re not in it for the money.

We are in Vermont and my wife went to Dartmouth Hitchcock in New Hampshire for all surgeries yet with two different surgeons. Dartmouth itself is a teach faculty! After having Total Bilateral hip replacement my wife had complications from compressed nerve and fractured pelvic on the opposite side and was Black & Blue from head to toe, all over her body which generated the need for my wife to inquire if she had been dropped off the table during her surgery. And, once surgery was over, the surgeon informed me that all went well and I would be able to see her in 15 minutes; over 5 hours later I demanded that someone come and get me from the waiting room so I could see my wife. About 1.5 hours later we were United with zero explanation for the length of time.
Be your own advocate! No one took any responsibility for all that has happened to my wife! Even rehab Dr omitted things that lead to my wife getting dropped on the shower floor and then lying to me as to what happen, because I was there and witnessed the whole thing, yet they told me that they called me at home once they were able to retrieve her off the floor, when it was “I” that retrieved her from the floor!

sounds like you have grounds for a lawsuit. I was black and blue from my first hip surgery. It was horrible. But it was just the way it was. No foul on the drs part.
thank God you can advocate for your wife. My dog does little to help. 😉

One would have thought that there were grounds. However, all the doctors cover for each other to avoid costly malpractice insurance. There were notes in my wife’s file expressing that she had experienced multiple falls at the hospital, rehab and at home which were all false but due to not taking pictures almost daily at each location, one always covered the other; even mentioned knee or elbow surgery when it was just hips. They, the surgeon and Rehab doctor have to live with what they did wrong! I was just glad she was able to eventually go home and recover to the best of her ability; will never be 100% ever again. However, she is not bed ridden and the Cobalt /chromium poison and staph infections she acquired did not help either.