Revision Hip Surgery

All artificial joints, including hip joints, have a limited amount of time before daily use causes them to slowly but surely start to break down. The typical life of an artificial hip joint is 10 to 15 years, depending on the patient’s daily use of the joint. A more active patient who uses their joints rigorously may require a hip revision surgery sooner than a patient whose lifestyle remains more sedentary. After a 10 to 15 year period of normal wear and tear in the hip joint, the prosthesis does not fit as securely and starts to lose its effectiveness. In these cases, hip specialists recommend hip revision surgery.

Doctors define Revision hip surgery as a procedure that is performed to repair an artificial hip joint (prosthesis) which has degraded over time due to normal wear and tear of the prosthetic hip or by infection. Physicians then add new components to the joint to restore normal hip joint stability and help to correct the problem so the hip can function normally again.

Most of the time (and more so with newer hip replacements) the Artificial Joint pieces are built with revisions in mind, allowing the surgeon to more efficiently update the hardware for the patients next 10 to 15 years.

Potential benefits of revision hip surgery

Benefits of having hip revision surgery may include the following:

• Relief from pain
• Improved joint mobility and strength
• Improved appearance of the hip and leg