Connect
← Return to Newly replaced hip dislocated after 4 weeks.
Discussion
Newly replaced hip dislocated after 4 weeks.
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Sep 28, 2025 | Replies (47)Comment receiving replies
Hi HippyChick, and thanks for reaching out.
I'm sorry to hear of your hip dislocation. As you now know, those are very painful. I'm assuming a Dr. could pop your hip back in under sedation, but let me know if it required surgery.
And like me, it sounds like you got back to Pilates and stretching too soon. The dislocation would have damaged the joint capsule, and that will take some time to re-heal.
The best guidance - don't cross your operated leg over the other, and don't bend your hips more than 90 degrees. I was one month removed from surgery and feeling great. I did a stretch for my IT band where I bend from the waist and put my palms on the floor (I'm pretty flexible for an old guy!). The hip dislocated while I was bent over. It was so painful, and I had to wait 4 hours in the emergency room.
That was 5 months ago and all is fine. It sounds like you're in a leg brace for something other than your hip. The hospital should also have done xrays to make sure the hip is ok and nothing is damaged or fractured.
Well now I have a kindred UK spirit in dislocating a replaced hip! I wish you all the best!
(I'm reminded of a few business trips to London, in the late 90s, and I've been through Heathrow a few times. I miss London and I love the black taxis. Who needs Uber in London?)
Joe
Replies to "Hi HippyChick, and thanks for reaching out. I'm sorry to hear of your hip dislocation. As..."
Connect
The don't cross your legs and associated advice was for the oldest, posterior, approach to hip replacement. It may or may not apply to you.
My surgeon, the principal inventor of the new Superpath approach, met me in the outpatient room before surgery and he had the hospital's multipage instructions in his hand including the don't bend or cross your legs, etc. He tossed it in the waste paper basket and told me that the only important advice was to take my medicine (pain medicine and I ended up not needing it) and be a couch potato for five weeks because he can't make bones grow.
So for five weeks I was a couch potato. Three years later still no problems. But, alas, now I have a nonfunctioning right knee so the same surgeon is doing a TKR for me later this week. I know that recovery for a TKR is supposed to be tougher than for a hip but I have a lot of faith in my surgeon. I hope to be back on the golf course some time in November.
Most important advice I can give: use a surgeon who has successfully done at least hundreds of the procedure the way she is proposing to do it for you. For example, if you have a surgeon who has done thousands of posterior hips but is now using the anterior approach and has done twenty of the anteriors so far, I would not have a hip replacement from him at this time as he is not sufficiently experienced in the particular procedure you are about to undergo. I know some one has to be the early user, I just don't want it to be me.