PRECAUTIONS

for  total  hip patients

Please, discuss this list always with your surgeon.

Please, ask when the individual precautions will be lifted.

Additional precautions may be also added

• Avoid falls. Don’t move in environments where you can stumble and fall. A well-lit and easy path from the bed to the bathroom is essential for night visits of the bathroom.

• Never cross your legs at your knees
• Never squat
• Never bring your knee to your chest
• Do use high stools and chairs with arms
• Don’t lean forward while sitting

• Don’t use pain as a guide for what you may or may not to do. A pain-free movement in your new hip is not always a secure movement.
• Do cut back on your exercises if your muscles begin to ache, but don’t stop doing them entirely
• Don’t restrain from use of pain medication before your exercise if necessary
• Do apply heat before exercising to relieve muscle spasms to assist with range of motion exercises.
• If possible, exercise in pool - the buoying effect of water facilitates movements in your joints
• Do use ice to reduce pain and swelling, don’t apply ice directly on the skin
• Use pain medication when necessary, e.g. before the exercises or at night.
• Exercise regularly
• Keep your body weight under control. Excess weight increases stresses on your total hip joint and can cause failure of the joint prosthesis.

 

• If you develop a bacterial infection elsewhere in your body (for example bladder infection, boils, infected cuts, dental abscess) you should consult your doctor and have him to treat the infection promptly. The bacteria can otherwise travel via your bloodstream to your total hip and cause infection.
• Avoid open wounds in your legs - open wounds may become a portal for bacteria to enter your new hip joint.
• Avoid open wounds in your legs - open wounds may become a portal for bacteria to enter your new hip joint.
• Dental work can push "innocent" bacteria from your mouth cavity into your bloodstream and cause an infection in your joint replacement. Always notify your dentist or any other physician who treats you that you have an artificial joint. The prophylactic antibiotic use in connection with dental work varies from surgeon to surgeon (and the dentist). Ask your surgeon for advice.
• Also instrumental examinations of lung (bronchoscopy), bladder (cystoscopy), or bowel (colonoscopy) pushes bacteria in your bloodstream and should be also covered by antibiotics. Ask your surgeon for advice.
• Studies indicate that the risk of an artificial joint infection by bacteria travelling via a bloodstream is at its highest during the first two years after the operation. (AAOS, http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact)

  Viral infections, such as colds and  sore throats, do not endanger your total joints. Prophylactic antibiotics should not be used in these cases.