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Hip or knee replacement - before - what to ask your doctor

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What to ask your doctor before hip or knee replacement
Hip replacement - before - what to ask your doctor
Knee replacement - before - what to ask your doctor
Hip arthroplasty - before - what to ask your doctor
Knee arthroplasty - before - what to ask your doctor

You are going to have a hip or knee joint replacement surgery to replace all or part of your hip or knee joint with an artificial device (a prosthesis).

Below are some questions you may want to ask your health care provider to help you prepare for your hip or knee replacement.

Questions

Is joint replacement the best treatment for me right now? What other treatments should I think about?

  • What type of hip replacement am I having and what is the advantage of it?
  • How well does this surgery work for someone my age and with any of the medical problems I may have?
  • Will I be able to walk without pain? How far?
  • Will I be able to return to other activities, such as golf, swimming, tennis, or hiking? When can I do them?

Is there anything that I can do before the surgery so it will be more successful for me?

  • Are there exercises I should do to make my muscles stronger to get ready for surgery?
  • Can I learn to use crutches or a walker before I have the surgery?
  • Do I need to lose weight before surgery?
  • Where can I get help quitting cigarettes or not drinking alcohol, if I need to?

How can I get my home ready before I even go to the hospital?

  • How much help will I need when I come home? Will I be able to get out of bed?
  • How can I make my home safer for me?
  • How can I make my home so it is easier to get around and do things?
  • How can I make it easier for myself in the bathroom and shower?
  • What supplies will I need when I get home?
  • Do I need to rearrange my home?
  • What should I do if there are steps that go to my bedroom or bathroom?
  • Do I need a hospital bed?
  • Do I need to go to a rehabilitation facility?

What are the risks or complications of the surgery?

  • What can I do before surgery to make the risks lower?
  • For which of my medical problems (diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure) do I need to see my regular provider before my surgery?

Will I need a blood transfusion during or after the surgery? Isn't there a way of saving my own blood before the surgery so it can be used during the surgery?

What will the surgery and my stay in the hospital be like?

  • How long will the surgery last?
  • What type of anesthesia will be used? Are there choices to consider?
  • Will I be in a lot of pain after surgery? What will be done to relieve the pain?
  • How soon will I be getting up and moving around?
  • How do I get to the bathroom after surgery? Will I have a catheter in my bladder and for how long?
  • Will I have physical therapy in the hospital?
  • What other types of treatment or therapy will I have at the hospital?
  • How long do I need to be in the hospital?

Will I be able to walk when I leave the hospital?

  • Will I be able to go home after being in the hospital?
  • Where will I go if I need to recover more before going home?

Do I need to stop taking any medicines before my surgery?

  • Aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), or other arthritis drugs?
  • Vitamins, minerals, herbs, and supplements?
  • Blood thinners such as warfarin, clopidogrel, or others?
  • Other prescription medicines that my other providers may have given me?

What should I do the week and the night before my surgery?

  • When do I need to stop eating or drinking?
  • What medicines should I take the day of surgery?
  • When do I need to be at the hospital?
  • What should I bring with me to the hospital?
  • Do I need to shower with any particular soap?
Review Date: 6/4/2025

Reviewed By

C. Benjamin Ma, MD, Professor, Chief, Sports Medicine and Shoulder Service, UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, San Francisco, CA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

References

Harkness JW, Crockarell JR. Arthroplasty of the hip. In: Azar FM, Beaty JH, eds. Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics. 14th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2021:chap 3.

Mihalko WM. Arthroplasty of the knee. In: Azar FM, Beaty JH, eds. Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics. 14th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2021:chap 7.

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© 1997- A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.
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