Hip Replacement Deemed
Safe, Effective in Very Old

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Age alone should not determine which patients get hip replacement, as even those in their 90s and beyond can benefit, new study results suggest.

Among 65 patients between the ages of 90 and 104 who received total hip arthroplasty, researchers found that the nonagenarians and even centenarians showed improvements in relief of pain and function.

"Total hip replacement was reliable, durable and safe in this study," report Dr. Mark W. Pagnano and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Their findings are published in the March issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Surgeons in the U.S. perform tens of thousands of hip replacements each year, with the average age of patients being 68. The procedures involve using prosthetic implants to replace injured or worn joint tissue.

In the current study, patients were evaluated for pain, function and satisfaction about three years after they underwent surgery. For some patients, it was their first hip replacement, while others had a revision of a prior hip replacement.

In both groups, pain and function improved overall, and "patient satisfaction was high," according to Pagnano's team. There were several surgical complications, including infection and bone breaks, as well as some postoperative complications, including cardiac and respiratory problems in a few patients.

Still, the authors note, although complications "were common, they seldom compromised the ultimate outcome of the operation."

"The typical patient," they write, "lived for more than 5 years after hip replacement and had substantial relief of pain and improvement in function during that period."

The study may offer "a glimpse into the future," Dr. James G. O'Brien of the University of Louisville in Kentucky notes in an accompanying editorial.

"The most rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population is the group 85 years of age and older, but perhaps even more dramatic is the increase in centenarians with a predicted doubling each decade in the future," adds O'Brien.

Hip replacements in this group will likely become more common, he writes, although treatment decisions will have to be individualized for each patient.

SOURCE: Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2003;78:275-277,285-288.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".