In The Market For A Hip Joint?

In The Market For A Hip Joint?

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Story Published: Jun 15, 2006 at 5:02 AM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 8:27 AM PDT

By Herb Weisbaum

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SEATTLE - It's not your typical consumer purchase, but each year more than 600,000 people in this country "buy" a new hip or knee joint.

Consumer Reports wanted to know what it's like to go under the knife to have a joint replaced, so it surveyed 1,001 patients to find out.

"Generally, people were very satisfied with their outcome," says the magazine's Donato Vaccaro. In fact, "82 percent of those surveyed described themselves as very or completely satisfied with their new joint," he says.

Joint replacement surgery can be painful and have serious complications, but based on this survey, Vaccaro says it usually succeeds at the most basic level - pain relief.

"Even patients who were severely disabled before going into surgery reported that they had minimal pain in their joints 6-months later after the surgery," he tells me.

The magazine's survey found that most patients can perform routine activities just one month after their surgery. But one-third of hip surgery patients and one-fourth of the knee patients said they could not walk a half-mile a full year after the surgery.

One major finding from this survey: People who followed their physical therapy program were the most likely to be happy with the results of their surgery. They tended to walk better and sooner, to have fewer complications, and use less pain medicine.

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