Anterior Hip Replacement

An active life is a healthy, happy life. If yours has slowed down due to hip arthritis, find out how hip replacement surgery can help you get back on the move. At EvergreenHealth, you'll benefit from high-quality care that earned us Healthgrades' top five-star rating for hip replacement. Choose our highly experienced surgeons to help you return to your activities sooner thanks to our less invasive anterior (front) approach to surgery, partnered with computer navigation for better, long-term results.

Advantages of the Front Approach

Traditional hip replacement surgery uses an eight to 10-inch incision on the back side of your body. But anterior hip replacement at EvergreenHealth makes a small, four to five-inch incision on the front of your leg instead. This minimally invasive approach affects less tissue, leading to less pain and a faster recovery.

Do I Need a Hip Replacement?

Ask for a one-on-one joint replacement consultation with an EvergreenHealth joint replacement surgeon if you're living with ongoing hip pain, even after trying nonsurgical methods. These may include medications, physical therapy, weight loss, or hip injections.

Hip replacement, or arthroplasty, exchanges your painful joint for a natural-feeling artificial one made of materials such as ceramic, metal, and plastic. It offers a long-term solution for osteoarthritis, which wears down cartilage that cushions the bones in your hip and causes symptoms such as:

• Stiffness that limits your range of motion
• Pain that may be worse in the morning or after you sit for awhile
• Sense that your hip is locking, popping, buckling, or catching

Better-Fitting Implants With Surgical Navigation

Artificial joints last longer, have better stability and allow you more range of motion when they're in the exact right position in your hip. That's why total joint surgeons at EvergreenHealth use computer navigation to align and stabilize your implants. This advanced technology:

• Lets the surgical team plan and simulate your procedure before operating
• Provides detailed information about your bones and tissue during treatment
• Helps your surgeon tailor the size and position of your joint to your body for the best long-term outcome

Anesthesia & Pain Relief

Trust us to keep you as comfortable as possible throughout your surgical experience. You'll likely receive general anesthesia that causes you to sleep, as well as a spinal block to reduce stress and blood loss. Your care team may also use nerve blocks around your hip to prevent joint pain in the hours after the operation.

Managing Pain After Surgery

Your care team will recommend a combination of treatments (multimodal pain management) you can use to ease hip pain after you leave the hospital. EvergreenHealth's well-rounded approach helps you get effective relief with less reliance on opioids, or narcotics, that can cause side effects and be addictive.

Recovery From Hip Replacement

We know you want to get moving again as soon as possible. There is no better place than home to get started. Your preoperative physical therapy functional assessment will prepare you for going home the day of surgery (as long as your surgeon feels it's appropriate). Your preoperative functional assessment visit will teach you how to use a walker and how to prepare your house for your recovery. You'll be able to get around with a walker for two or three weeks after surgery before you transition to just a cane. As you keep doing your recommended exercises and therapy, you'll start to move around without a device. If needed, home health physical therapy can be arranged for the first week or two before you start you outpatient rehabilitation.

Plan to return to:

• Sedentary work (tasks you can do while sitting) in just three weeks
• Standing work and light physical tasks, like going to the grocery store, in six to eight weeks
• Active, physical labor in four to five months