Okay, Well on health today, I thought we'd have a look at something that's become very very common, and that's the old hip replacement. You might be someone that needs one, You might have had a hip replacement before. Chances are that you or someone you know has because the stats say fifty thousand Australians undergo replacement procedures every single calendar year,
fifty thousand. The surgeries are under take it to replace damage parts of the hip joint and we now use artificial implants and they can be total replacements where both the ball and the socket are replaced, or partial replacements we're only the ball that is, the ephemeral head is replaced. The surgery is often recommended for severe hip pain and stiffness caused by conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions.
The artificial parts are typically made of metal, ceramic, hard plastic now as well, and they're designed to mimic the natural ball and socket. Action Now has said a lot of Australians are waiting for one of these. A lot of Australians have had one of these. If you've got a question about hip replacement surgery or you've had one and you just want a few things answered. I got one of the best in the business here with me now,
doctor John Limbers, specialist orthopedic surgeon on the line. John, thank you for your time.
No worries. Thanks very much for having me.
Michael, how did you get involved in all of this line of work?
Well, it's funny. You won't believe this, but it goes way back to where I was a child. That's when my father was an oft peak surgeon and done. He described what he did to me. He described to me what he did, and I thought that's cool. One day I want to do that, and so I did. That's pretty much it.
And with a name like Limbers, I especially had to work on arms or legs, didn't you Eventually?
Well, I guess, to be honest, you're not the first person to say not even the second.
I might be the first today that I'll acclaim. So, I mean, look, the technology, the surgery itself has come a long way since your father was doing it.
Hasn't it. Yeah, it has. It has. A hip replacement has been around since the nineteen sixties when Sir John Charlie really pioneered it. That there had been attempts at it before, but that's really when it started, and obviously it's just gone from strength to strength since then. It is one of the most successful operations of all time. It was described by the Lantis, by the Lancet as
the operation of the century. It really does give people a lot of great pain relief and gets people back to work and to function, and like any procedure, we're always trying to get better and better at it.
Okay, why what would the average life look like without the hip replacement if one needed it in the past, Because you know, I mean I'm turning forty, but you know, if we go back far enough to your dad's generation before, if people had bad hips, I mean, what was quality of life like without the option of a replacement.
Well, that's a good question. I often wonder that because I've never known that myself. I often wonder what was life like before? You know, some of these people that need some of this surgery are actually crippled by it, and I can only imagine that. Look, if it wasn't there, it wasn't there. For one thing, life is expectancy was a lot less. Then, you know, we expect to live to whar aight five, you know, or thereabouts. But actually before you know, in the fifties and sixties, a lot
of people didn't live that long. They probably just well, bad luck. If you've got a bad hip, well you've just put up with it. Will give you pay relief, you know. There were some like some rudimentary operations described, like for example, osterotomy is where they would cut the hip bone and change the position of it so that you'd had weight bearing and alex worn out position. But the options weren't great, and really it was just we'll, you know, just grin and bear it and we'll do what we can.
Why do people get bad hips? Is it because of the hips themselves? Or is it because sometimes their back alignment is out or one leg shorter than the other and there's great were on one side than the other as a result of it. Is it cause and effect?
In the majority of most most hip of for primary arthritis, or more correctly primary osteoarthrosis, And in most of those cases the real reason is genetics. It runs. We know what happens. We know that the cartlers wears out, we know these sort of biochemical changes, but we don't know exactly why it happens, and it tends to run in families. So in most cases it's really genetics. But some families their hips and these were out as they get older,
and other families not so much. But there are other reasons. It can be secondary to you know, blatches and trauma and injuries and rheumatoid arthritis or you know, other inflammatory arthritis. So there are other causes of course.
Okay, let's take a couple of calls quickly here if you don't mind, Ralph. You've had a hit replacement recently, have.
You, Yes, Michael, I had one done twelve months ago, and I'm really not all that happy with the result. I just wanted to sort of get an opinion on it if I could.
Yeah, well, you've got a question for John, because you know John's one of the best.
Of the best.
Yeah. Yeah, Well, I had a total hip replacement through the anterior and since I had it done, I've had this like a siadic butty pain, but it's only in the buttck. It doesn't go down the leg, and I've got sort of an aching sort of around the round the hip area. I've been back to see a surgeon about it a couple of times. And he doesn't seem to think there's much wrong with it. And I've had an MRI and they they said that there is the
problems with the medius and maximus tendons in there. And but I paint, particularly when I when I sit down in the car for you know, like half an hour or more.
All right, John, I mean this probably isn't an uncommon story, you hear. What can you recommend?
Well, it's you know, someone's coming back for paid Obviously the best thing to do is, as he's done ses surgeon and get it investigated. And it's hard for me to know from here exactly what the reason for his pain is. But you know, people vary in their recovery time and their response to replacement surgery. Not everyone does well, but most people do it. But you know, if there is ongoing pain, the first thing is to look into it to find exactly what the reason is. Often it
will be a muscle issue. You can get impingement of some tendons around the hip joint after replacement surgery, or weakness of some of them hip stabilizing muscles. And many times, with time it will settle down. With the further time and a really good ongoing strengthening and fitness program. So you do see patients who are not doing well after a year after a hip or and their replacement, and then at a year two years they're coming back and
doing well. But obviously first thing is that the surgeon needs to, you know, exclude any specific problems. Make sure you know there's not infective, there's no fracture, and I'm sure your surgeon has done that, and I'm sure there isn't a problem locked up. But that's what I would do as a surgeon. You normally exclude a specific problem. If you exclude a specific problem, then often it will gradually improve with further time and strengthening.
For Zartha ra our fingers crossed, that's going to be your story. You know, I can understand John that you know, people waiting one two years before they notice sort of improvement. You would expect that that is a long time to wait. Right, people are going to say something's not right.
Here, correct, and then that's certainly at one end of the bell curve, and it's not the normal response.
And so what is the normal recovery period? Just out of interest everage operation, Well, the.
Way I would normally describe it to a patient is that you'll get over most of it in the first six weeks. A full recovery maybe three to six months, but many patients keep improving gradually for a year or more. That's probably the way, and I leave it a little bit vague like that because that's a rough godeline. The patients really do there a lot in their speech to recovery.
The human body is an amazing you know, Varya booking, And there's a certain amount of predictability, so I never sort of give exact times, but that's normally the way I would.
Say, Okay, just one more question here, Peter, what's your question?
Once I've got two problems. What happened? I waited twelve months for a Hernier operation in the growing I had it done and that was seven weeks ago, and that's still got an eight there. But because I waited twelve months, I've wakened my hip. And I had an ultracy on the other day that said, I've got the side to see it now, I've got a way up whether to have a quarter zone injection or what can I do?
And because I'm going over season two weeks time, and although it has it has improved a little bit.
All right.
Well, it's sort of out of time here, Peter said, John, I'll just give it to you in a minute. What you don't have all the info there, but what would.
You say, I'd say, dising strengthening work. Let it improve, it's starting to improve. Take some paracenamore, get some topical ancient flum trees and rub it on the area. See if there's our purpose for a strengthening probe. Go and I'll probably keep improving.
Fingers crossed for you, Peter, and having your very safe travels I hope as well. John, it's been very interesting speaking with you, and this is something I've got a lot of text coming through. We're out of time, but this is obviously something when you look at the numbers that does affect a lot of Australians. And as we get older, on average, you're not going to be out of work. I suspect John, you'll be a busy man.
That's okay, keys to be out of trouble.
That's it.
Thank you for sparing some of your valuable time for us. I appreciate it. No, thanks for having me my pleasure, doctor John Limbers, As I said a specialist orthopedic surgeon,