Do’s and Don'ts After Hip Replacement Surgery!

After undergoing Hip replacement surgery, life seems to be the same as it was before surgery. But still you need to take precautions and be alert at times to protect your new hip. The goal is to get you back to the activities that you were able to do before your hip fracture. Precautions are necessary to avoid hip dislocation or separation of the new Hip until it gets completely healed.

Recovery At Home

After the surgery, when you are home, you need to make certain changes to make your recovery easier.

• Rearrange the home: Rearrange your home furniture and make more space to walk and move around without any difficulty.
• Wound care: The incision wound is more prone to infection. Keep it clean and dry on regular basis and apply bandage till instructed.
• Medication: Take medicines as instructed though you may feel that you are perfectly fine and do not need to take more medicines.
• Swelling: Post surgery, swelling is expected for next 3-6 months. You can apply ice pack or wear compression stockings to reduce swelling.
• Diet: You may be advised to avoid some foods (like vitamin k) and increase the intake of other nutrients.
• Sleeping positions: Doctor may recommend you to sleep with a pillow beneath your leg or between them for a certain period of time.

List of Activities to Protect New Hip

Do's

• Keep pillows between your legs while sleeping
• Use ice packs in case of swelling.
• Use a raised toilet seat to prevent forward leaning.
• Use handrails or bars in bathrooms to stand up with support
• Ask someone to help you wear your socks and shoes.
• Do limit stair climbing and walk with cane or crutches.
• Use step stool instead of furniture or chairs.
• Engage in lower stress activities like walking, swimming and cycling.
• Take maximum rest as your hip cannot handle much stress and can lead to dislocation.

Don’ts

• Don’t get into rigorous exercise or activities like rope climbing, martial arts, high intensity jogging and running.
• Don’t sit with your legs crossed.
• Don’t lift heavy objects.
• Don’t twist your hip or bend forward to pick up the objects on the floor.
• Don’t sit on low chairs or soft couches.
• Don’t reach for pulling up the blankets while lying in the bed.
• Don’t turn immediately, take small steps while turning.
• Don’t get into a bathtub instead use a bench for bathing.
• Don’t drive for six to eight months.
• Do not sleep on the affected leg.

For the initial days post surgery, you need to take care of the listed activities to prevent hip dislocation. The other concern is to get treated with the best orthopedic surgeons. Hip Replacement surgery cost is very less in India as compared to other countries. Hip replacement surgery has 90% of success rate in India provided at much affordable cost when compared to its availability in other global medical tourism destinations across the world. The international patients can avail this high quality treatment opportunity and save much of their money.