Each year in the United States, orthopedic surgeons perform 790,000 total knee replacements and 544,000 hip replacements — the two most commonly replaced joints. And these replacement surgeries enjoy an excellent success rate, essentially giving patients a new lease on life.
While not common, joint replacements can fail for a variety of reasons — such as re-injury and aging implants — requiring a joint revision surgery. For example, the five-year revision rates for total hip replacements and total knee replacements range between 2%-4% and 3%-5%, respectively.
If you have a joint replacement that’s giving you trouble and you're wondering whether it’s failing, you’re in the right place. The team of board-certified orthopedic surgeons at New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine specializes in both original joint replacement and revision surgery.
Here, we look at five signs that might point toward a failing joint replacement, making you a candidate for joint revision surgery.
The first and most obvious sign of a failing joint replacement is the return of pain and swelling in your joint. Bear in mind that even a replacement joint can experience pain and swelling from time to time if you’re active.
When a replacement joint is failing, however, the symptoms are typically persistent and gradually get worse. The discomfort can flare with activity, become more constant with time, and even attack at night when you’re trying to sleep.
Just like your original joint, if you start to experience increasing stiffness and loss of range of motion, this might indicate that your replacement joint isn’t doing its job as well anymore.
Joint replacements can loosen, especially if there’s natural bone loss, and you might feel unstable on the joint. This instability can make you less confident in your joint if it feels as though it might give out.
Infection is another possible complication of joint replacement surgery. While many infections develop early on, they can also set in years down the road.
An infection in your joint replacement is hard to ignore — most people experience heat, pain, swelling, and redness. These symptoms can be relatively mild at first, but like the other complications above, they’re persistent and progressive, becoming increasingly worse.
With severe infection, you might develop fever, nausea, and vomiting, making it a medical emergency, so you should seek help straight away in these cases.
With hip replacements, some patients can wind up with slightly different leg lengths. This can also be related to existing spine or other joint problems. This is usually not problematic or can be resolved with a simple shoe insert.
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, we urge you to see our team for an evaluation. The development of these issues doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll need revision surgery, but it’s best to have us check you out.
To sit down with one of our joint replacement experts, contact New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine in New Braunfels, Texas. You can call our office at 830-341-1386 or request an appointment online.
