So, you’ve decided to undergo joint replacement surgery. Congratulations! You’re very likely on your way to a much more active and pain-free lifestyle.

The first thing to know about recuperation from a joint or knee replacement is that it is a gradual process that takes place over a lengthy period of time. Familiarizing yourself with what will happen in the weeks and months following the procedure will help you prepare beforehand so you can feel more confident going in.

Physical Therapy is Crucial to Recovery

While recovering from a hip or joint replacement, most patients must work with a physical therapist to build back their strength and return flexibility to the affected area.

Be sure to work with a Certified Physical Therapist (CPT) who is qualified to provide a proper joint-strengthening program for your recovery. This process is crucial to increasing your mobility as you heal and getting back in shape so you can resume your normal activities. When you partner with a CPT at MidAmerica Orthopaedics, you get every aspect of your treatment – diagnostics, surgery and therapy – taken care of under one roof. 

If chronic pain and stiffness in your arthritic knee prohibit you from climbing a flight of stairs, you may be considering a knee replacement so you can return to your daily activities, as well as your second floor.

More than 450,000 patients undergo a total hip replacement each year. The surgery is a highly successful, long-term treatment of common but serious hip problems, in which implants recreate the ball and socket of a healthy hip.

If a surgeon has recommended the surgery to treat your hip pain, you’re likely contemplating what a total replacement will mean for you. Even if your daily routine has become difficult and other treatments have been ineffective, just the idea of a prosthetic hip can be scary. However, the procedure has a strong track record of reducing pain and restoring hip function to patients throughout the country. The success rate 10 years after surgery is between 90-95 percent and continues to be highly effective long after.

Typical conditions that lead to hip replacements are: 

• Osteoarthritis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Avascular necrosis
• A serious injury

Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine that typically forms in early childhood. While most cases are so mild they don’t necessitate treatment, some cases have been linked to serious conditions such as muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. Fortunately, recent developments in youth orthopaedic medicine are making even these cases easier to treat.

If you’re raising children, you’ve likely dealt with more than a few bumps and bruises. As kids get older, their injuries can become a bit more serious due to growth spurts, particularly if they’re athletic or play a contact sport.

Good news for the millions of people throughout the country suffering from bunions: lapiplasty is a recently developed treatment with the potential to exceed the results of traditional bunion surgery. Left untreated, this common foot deformity can cause increasing pain and discomfort that eventually limits basic activities.

No parent wants to contemplate anything harming their child. But injuries are often a fact of life growing up, especially for active children.

We live in an era when advanced medicine – and joint replacements in particular – are allowing people with debilitating conditions to live longer, healthier, and more enjoyable lives. Over 1 million total hip and total knee replacement procedures are performed in the U.S. each year.