Hip Surgery for the Elderly

Hip Surgery May Be Okay for Patients Over 80

Hip replacement surgery patients who are 80 or older are just as good of candidates as those 70 and younger, according to results of a study published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

The study shows that patients who were 80 years old at the time of surgery had comparable strength and function in their replaced hip as patients who were 70 years old and younger at the time of surgery.

More than 250,000 hip replacement surgeries are performed in the United States each year. Though nonsurgical treatment methods are always exhausted first, they generally can only treat the symptoms. Therefore, hip replacement surgery is often necessary to treat osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, both of which entail the breakdown of cartilage and bone-on-bone pain.

Those who experience constant hip pain should be evaluated by an orthopaedic specialist. For more information or questions, contact Orthopaedic Associates at 850-863-2153.