Speaker 1: Okay, Well on health today, I thought we'd have a
Speaker 1: look at something that's become very very common, and that's
Speaker 1: the old hip replacement. You might be someone that needs one,
Speaker 1: You might have had a hip replacement before. Chances are
Speaker 1: that you or someone you know has because the stats
Speaker 1: say fifty thousand Australians undergo replacement procedures every single calendar year,
Speaker 1: fifty thousand. The surgeries are under take it to replace
Speaker 1: damage parts of the hip joint and we now use
Speaker 1: artificial implants and they can be total replacements where both
Speaker 1: the ball and the socket are replaced, or partial replacements
Speaker 1: we're only the ball that is, the ephemeral head is replaced.
Speaker 1: The surgery is often recommended for severe hip pain and
Speaker 1: stiffness caused by conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions.
Speaker 1: The artificial parts are typically made of metal, ceramic, hard
Speaker 1: plastic now as well, and they're designed to mimic the
Speaker 1: natural ball and socket. Action Now has said a lot
Speaker 1: of Australians are waiting for one of these. A lot
Speaker 1: of Australians have had one of these. If you've got
Speaker 1: a question about hip replacement surgery or you've had one
Speaker 1: and you just want a few things answered. I got
Speaker 1: one of the best in the business here with me now,
Speaker 1: doctor John Limbers, specialist orthopedic surgeon on the line. John,
Speaker 1: thank you for your time.
Speaker 2: No worries. Thanks very much for having me.
Speaker 1: Michael, how did you get involved in all of this
Speaker 1: line of work?
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny. You won't believe this, but it goes
Speaker 2: way back to where I was a child. That's when
Speaker 2: my father was an oft peak surgeon and done. He
Speaker 2: described what he did to me. He described to me
Speaker 2: what he did, and I thought that's cool. One day
Speaker 2: I want to do that, and so I did. That's
Speaker 2: pretty much it.
Speaker 1: And with a name like Limbers, I especially had to
Speaker 1: work on arms or legs, didn't you Eventually?
Speaker 2: Well, I guess, to be honest, you're not the first
Speaker 2: person to say not even the second.
Speaker 1: I might be the first today that I'll acclaim. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, the technology, the surgery itself has come
Speaker 1: a long way since your father was doing it.
Speaker 2: Hasn't it. Yeah, it has. It has. A hip replacement
Speaker 2: has been around since the nineteen sixties when Sir John
Speaker 2: Charlie really pioneered it. That there had been attempts at
Speaker 2: it before, but that's really when it started, and obviously
Speaker 2: it's just gone from strength to strength since then. It
Speaker 2: is one of the most successful operations of all time.
Speaker 2: It was described by the Lantis, by the Lancet as
Speaker 2: the operation of the century. It really does give people
Speaker 2: a lot of great pain relief and gets people back
Speaker 2: to work and to function, and like any procedure, we're
Speaker 2: always trying to get better and better at it.
Speaker 3: Okay, why what would the average life look like without
Speaker 3: the hip replacement if one needed it in the past,
Speaker 3: Because you know, I mean I'm turning forty, but you know,
Speaker 3: if we go back far enough to your dad's generation before,
Speaker 3: if people had bad hips, I mean, what was quality
Speaker 3: of life like without the option of a replacement.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a good question. I often wonder that because
Speaker 2: I've never known that myself. I often wonder what was
Speaker 2: life like before? You know, some of these people that
Speaker 2: need some of this surgery are actually crippled by it,
Speaker 2: and I can only imagine that. Look, if it wasn't there,
Speaker 2: it wasn't there. For one thing, life is expectancy was
Speaker 2: a lot less. Then, you know, we expect to live
Speaker 2: to whar aight five, you know, or thereabouts. But actually
Speaker 2: before you know, in the fifties and sixties, a lot
Speaker 2: of people didn't live that long. They probably just well,
Speaker 2: bad luck. If you've got a bad hip, well you've
Speaker 2: just put up with it. Will give you pay relief,
Speaker 2: you know. There were some like some rudimentary operations described,
Speaker 2: like for example, osterotomy is where they would cut the
Speaker 2: hip bone and change the position of it so that
Speaker 2: you'd had weight bearing and alex worn out position. But
Speaker 2: the options weren't great, and really it was just we'll,
Speaker 2: you know, just grin and bear it and we'll do
Speaker 2: what we can.
Speaker 1: Why do people get bad hips? Is it because of
Speaker 1: the hips themselves? Or is it because sometimes their back
Speaker 1: alignment is out or one leg shorter than the other
Speaker 1: and there's great were on one side than the other
Speaker 1: as a result of it. Is it cause and effect?
Speaker 2: In the majority of most most hip of for primary arthritis,
Speaker 2: or more correctly primary osteoarthrosis, And in most of those
Speaker 2: cases the real reason is genetics. It runs. We know
Speaker 2: what happens. We know that the cartlers wears out, we
Speaker 2: know these sort of biochemical changes, but we don't know
Speaker 2: exactly why it happens, and it tends to run in families.
Speaker 2: So in most cases it's really genetics. But some families
Speaker 2: their hips and these were out as they get older,
Speaker 2: and other families not so much. But there are other reasons.
Speaker 2: It can be secondary to you know, blatches and trauma
Speaker 2: and injuries and rheumatoid arthritis or you know, other inflammatory arthritis.
Speaker 2: So there are other causes of course.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's take a couple of calls quickly here if
Speaker 1: you don't mind, Ralph. You've had a hit replacement recently, have.
Speaker 4: You, Yes, Michael, I had one done twelve months ago,
Speaker 4: and I'm really not all that happy with the result.
Speaker 4: I just wanted to sort of get an opinion on
Speaker 4: it if I could.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you've got a question for John, because you
Speaker 1: know John's one of the best.
Speaker 2: Of the best.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, Well, I had a total hip replacement through
Speaker 4: the anterior and since I had it done, I've had
Speaker 4: this like a siadic butty pain, but it's only in
Speaker 4: the buttck. It doesn't go down the leg, and I've
Speaker 4: got sort of an aching sort of around the round
Speaker 4: the hip area. I've been back to see a surgeon
Speaker 4: about it a couple of times. And he doesn't seem
Speaker 4: to think there's much wrong with it. And I've had
Speaker 4: an MRI and they they said that there is the
Speaker 4: problems with the medius and maximus tendons in there. And
Speaker 4: but I paint, particularly when I when I sit down
Speaker 4: in the car for you know, like half an hour
Speaker 4: or more.
Speaker 1: All right, John, I mean this probably isn't an uncommon story,
Speaker 1: you hear. What can you recommend?
Speaker 2: Well, it's you know, someone's coming back for paid Obviously
Speaker 2: the best thing to do is, as he's done ses
Speaker 2: surgeon and get it investigated. And it's hard for me
Speaker 2: to know from here exactly what the reason for his
Speaker 2: pain is. But you know, people vary in their recovery
Speaker 2: time and their response to replacement surgery. Not everyone does well,
Speaker 2: but most people do it. But you know, if there
Speaker 2: is ongoing pain, the first thing is to look into
Speaker 2: it to find exactly what the reason is. Often it
Speaker 2: will be a muscle issue. You can get impingement of
Speaker 2: some tendons around the hip joint after replacement surgery, or
Speaker 2: weakness of some of them hip stabilizing muscles. And many times,
Speaker 2: with time it will settle down. With the further time
Speaker 2: and a really good ongoing strengthening and fitness program. So
Speaker 2: you do see patients who are not doing well after
Speaker 2: a year after a hip or and their replacement, and
Speaker 2: then at a year two years they're coming back and
Speaker 2: doing well. But obviously first thing is that the surgeon
Speaker 2: needs to, you know, exclude any specific problems. Make sure
Speaker 2: you know there's not infective, there's no fracture, and I'm
Speaker 2: sure your surgeon has done that, and I'm sure there
Speaker 2: isn't a problem locked up. But that's what I would
Speaker 2: do as a surgeon. You normally exclude a specific problem.
Speaker 2: If you exclude a specific problem, then often it will
Speaker 2: gradually improve with further time and strengthening.
Speaker 1: For Zartha ra our fingers crossed, that's going to be
Speaker 1: your story. You know, I can understand John that you know,
Speaker 1: people waiting one two years before they notice sort of improvement.
Speaker 1: You would expect that that is a long time to wait. Right,
Speaker 1: people are going to say something's not right.
Speaker 2: Here, correct, and then that's certainly at one end of
Speaker 2: the bell curve, and it's not the normal response.
Speaker 1: And so what is the normal recovery period? Just out
Speaker 1: of interest everage operation, Well, the.
Speaker 2: Way I would normally describe it to a patient is
Speaker 2: that you'll get over most of it in the first
Speaker 2: six weeks. A full recovery maybe three to six months,
Speaker 2: but many patients keep improving gradually for a year or more.
Speaker 2: That's probably the way, and I leave it a little
Speaker 2: bit vague like that because that's a rough godeline. The
Speaker 2: patients really do there a lot in their speech to recovery.
Speaker 2: The human body is an amazing you know, Varya booking,
Speaker 2: And there's a certain amount of predictability, so I never
Speaker 2: sort of give exact times, but that's normally the way
Speaker 2: I would.
Speaker 1: Say, Okay, just one more question here, Peter, what's your question?
Speaker 5: Once I've got two problems. What happened? I waited twelve
Speaker 5: months for a Hernier operation in the growing I had
Speaker 5: it done and that was seven weeks ago, and that's
Speaker 5: still got an eight there. But because I waited twelve months,
Speaker 5: I've wakened my hip. And I had an ultracy on
Speaker 5: the other day that said, I've got the side to
Speaker 5: see it now, I've got a way up whether to
Speaker 5: have a quarter zone injection or what can I do?
Speaker 5: And because I'm going over season two weeks time, and
Speaker 5: although it has it has improved a little bit.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Well, it's sort of out of time here, Peter said, John,
Speaker 1: I'll just give it to you in a minute. What
Speaker 1: you don't have all the info there, but what would.
Speaker 2: You say, I'd say, dising strengthening work. Let it improve,
Speaker 2: it's starting to improve. Take some paracenamore, get some topical
Speaker 2: ancient flum trees and rub it on the area. See
Speaker 2: if there's our purpose for a strengthening probe. Go and
Speaker 2: I'll probably keep improving.
Speaker 1: Fingers crossed for you, Peter, and having your very safe
Speaker 1: travels I hope as well. John, it's been very interesting
Speaker 1: speaking with you, and this is something I've got a
Speaker 1: lot of text coming through. We're out of time, but
Speaker 1: this is obviously something when you look at the numbers
Speaker 1: that does affect a lot of Australians. And as we
Speaker 1: get older, on average, you're not going to be out
Speaker 1: of work. I suspect John, you'll be a busy man.
Speaker 2: That's okay, keys to be out of trouble.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for sparing some of your valuable time for us.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. No, thanks for having me my pleasure,
Speaker 1: doctor John Limbers, As I said a specialist orthopedic surgeon,