What Is ‘hip’ About Non-invasive Surgery

Authored by Dr. Eric Martin, Orthopedic Surgeon of Garnet Health Doctors

If you are looking to restore your quality of life, overall, to maintain physical activity, hip and also knee, replacement surgeries are just about the most successful operations out there for achieving the results they’re meant to achieve – the relief of joint pain.

Between a quarter million to 400 thousand knee replacements will be performed this year in the United States. The survivorship of an implant is approximately 95 percent and at 15 years, the vast majority of people are happy with their procedure.

Minimally Invasive Means Less Impact and Faster Recovery Times

When you look at the x-rays, a hip replacement begins and ends as the same thing today as it would have 10 years ago. The reasons for, and results of, a hip surgery remain the same as ever, but what we’ve gotten really good at is the way in which we install the implants. The equipment available today allows us to make significantly smaller incisions. We also apply special anesthesia as part of advanced perioperative treatments around the time of surgery.

All of this leads to less impact on the body and faster recover times. In fact, I have had patients qualify for procedures where we have had them in the operating room in the morning and sent them home by dinner time. This isn’t the case for every patient, but it does illustrate just how far our technology and techniques have come and how that benefits patients.

Sometimes I wish I could just give someone a tap on the hip and have the implants just beamed into their body. But, as with any surgical procedure, even non-invasive hip surgery there will still be some level of discomfort.

In order for me to discharge a patient from the hospital on the same day we do the surgery, the patient must be able to walk more than 250 feet and climb stairs. They also have to be able to get themselves into and out of a car before they leave.

This does not mean a patient won’t have some soreness or a bit of a limp for a couple of weeks, but beyond that, they usually return to their former gait pretty quickly, and most are back to work just two weeks after surgery. Quicker recovery times really increase the upside for joint patients considering surgery as an option. Once an arthritic joint gets significantly advanced you end up having to consider treatments which are only partially helpful, at best, versus surgery.

Learn More About Hip Replacement Surgery

At Garnet Health Medical Center, our orthopedic surgeons are treating patients with a minimally-invasive Hip Replacement procedure, in which there is no surgical dislocation of the hip and it’s possible for patients to walk within hours of surgery. The concept of tissue-sparing or “minimally invasive” surgery has been applied to hip replacement.

Patients tend to experience:

• Shorter lengths of hospital stays
• Lower rates of blood transfusions
• More discharged home
• Quicker return to daily activities

If you are interested in our minimally invasive hip replacement surgery, please call our office at 845-333-7575 to make an appointment with Dr. Martin.

Eric L. Martin, M.D.

Dr. Martin is Board-certified in orthopedics by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgeons and is affiliated with Garnet Health Doctors. Dr. Martin earned his medical degree from New York University, completed both his general surgery internship and his residency at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stonybrook in addition to his reconstructive joint surgery fellowship from Rush University/St. Luke’s Medical Center & Central DuPage Hospital in Chicago, Ill.

To make an appointment with Dr. Martin, please call 845-333-7575

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