Does anterior total hip replacement shorten recovery time?

Does anterior total hip replacement shorten recovery time? 150 150 Phoenix Spine & Joint

My name is Dr. Dan Lieberman, and I’m the Medical Director at Phoenix Spine & Joint. During my time at Phoenix Spine & Joint, I’ve witnessed so many people benefit from minimally invasive hip procedures like anterior total hip replacement.

What is anterior total hip replacement?

The surgeons at Phoenix Spine & Joint agree with many surgeons in the U.S. who feel that minimally invasive hip replacement surgeries, like the anterior total hip replacement, are the preferred option for our patients. You may be aware of the general process of total hip replacement already. If you aren’t, it’s a surgical procedure where the bone ball-and-socket that make up your hip joint are replaced with long-lasting metal or ceramic implants.
However, you may not know how the word anterior is related to this type of surgery. Anterior is a medical term that means from front. In the case of anterior total hip replacement, this term describes the way our surgeons access your hip joint during surgery, which will be by making an incision on the front of your hip.

What are some of the benefits of anterior total hip replacement?

One of the biggest benefits that the anterior approach to total hip replacement offers is less muscle trauma. By making my incision on the front of your hip, your surgeon is able to avoid cutting your leg muscles or detaching them from your bones, which isn’t the case with other approaches. It’s actually this ability to avoid cutting muscles that allows this procedure to be classified as minimally invasive, and it also means that you’re likely to experience less trauma to your muscles during an anterior total hip replacement.
Other benefits many of my patients have gotten from anterior hip replacements include:

  • Less post-operative pain
  • Reduced risk of hip dislocation after surgery
  • Greater freedom of movement after surgery

All these benefits combine together to offer you the biggest benefit of minimally invasive hip replacement surgery, which is you may spend much less time recovering.
At Phoenix Spine & Joint, we have helped many patients benefit from minimally invasive hip replacements. If you’ve been told you need a hip replacement, you owe it to yourself to find out if we can use this tool to help you with your hip pain.
Contact one of our patient care coordinators today for more information or to schedule a free second opinion.