Monahan Law Blog

New Medical Study Shows Hip Replacements Need to be Redone in 1 out of 75

British researchers reported last month in the journal PLoS Medicine that 1 in 75 new joint replacements must eventually be redone.  Given the skyrocketing number of first time hip and knee replacement which is expected to go from 478,000 knee replacements a year currently to an expected 3.4 million per year by 2030 as the population ages, and 234,000 total hip replacements that is expected to more than double in the same time, younger patients are more likely to outlive their artificial joints.  Plus revisions require longer operations as surgeons hunt for usable bone and they also cost more.  In addition, another new study warns about what athletic activity patients should try after recovery.

In a case that I am currently handling involving a man in his early 40's who slipped and fell on ice that the owner let melt and freeze over a period of three days without admittedly ever placing sand or salt on the surface where hundreds of pedestrians walked each morning, the prospect of further hip replacement over the course of his life represents a real possibility after he suffered a fractured hip in the fall.  In addition, the man runs additional risks of developing complications from the hip fracture including failure of the hardware used to fix the fracture, infections to the fracture site, and what is known as avascular necrosis which might further necessitate hip replacement.