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Going Home: What to Expect After Same-Day Robotic Hip Replacement Surgery

Going Home: What to Expect After Same-Day Robotic Hip Replacement Surgery

Going Home: What to Expect After Same-Day Robotic Hip Replacement Surgery
Going Home: What to Expect After Same-Day Robotic Hip Replacement Surgery

What to Expect After Same-Day Robotic Hip Replacement Surgery

The powerful combination of expert orthopedic surgical training and precise robotic technologies in the operating suite have created a new reality for patients undergoing hip replacement surgery: Many of them are going home the same day of the surgery.

“It’s a lot different than hip replacement surgery of decades ago,” acknowledges Dr. Robert J. Avino, board-certified, fellowship- trained surgeon with Palm Beach Orthopaedic Institute who specializes in robotic hip and knee replacement at Jupiter Medical Center.

Indeed it is. “Hip replacement patients should be back up and walking with a walker, even going up and down stairs, the same day of the operation,” he says.

In Dr. Avino’s practice, in fact, more and more hip replacement patients are sent home the same day of their surgery. These patients are carefully selected and require a designated “joint replacement coach” – a spouse, partner, adult child, caretaker or other responsible person who can help them at home with simple activities like moving carefully from place to place, showering and tending to daily needs.

Minimally invasive and disruptive

“For patients to go home the same day, we have to do surgery as minimally invasive as possible and get them up and moving with the physical therapist while they’re still in the hospital,” he explains.

Even if their hospital stay lasts a day or more, “most patients can walk as soon as they get out of the operating room,” says Dr. Avino, who has performed over 500 Mako robotic hip and knee replacement surgeries.

This new recovery reality is good news for people who have delayed hip surgery because they remember their parents’ or other relatives’ struggles with long, painful rehabilitations and recoveries, including walkers, wheelchairs, unsteady gaits, and new joints that often didn’t function optimally or align evenly.

Dr. Avino points out that a variety of factors make robotic hip replacement surgery much less painful and more patient- focused, thanks to robotic techniques that ensure a precise fit between the patient’s own anatomy and a new artificial joint. Aiding the speedy recovery are surgical techniques that have less disruption/movement of the muscles and soft tissues that surround and support new hip joint.

At-home comfort, gentler drugs

Because the surgery is less invasive, patients also no longer have to rely on strong opioids to manage their pain. Medications like Tylenol and Advil are typically prescribed to control post-surgical pain, sparing patients opioids’ common side effects of nausea, dizziness, constipation and light- headedness.

“Same-day surgery is something that’s very interesting to patients if they’re healthy candidates,” he points out. “It involves a lot more education to send them home knowing how to protect themselves, how to use the walker, how to take their medications.

“People sometimes have a notion that they’ll experience a better recovery if they’re in a hospital or in rehab, but that’s not necessarily the case,” he adds.

“If you’re able to be released the same day, you’re likely to have a better experience because you can just ask your spouse or caretaker for what you need while you recover in the comfort of your own home. There are no delays, no interruptions, no beeping monitors that you might encounter in a hospital. You can do your rehab and physical therapy at home.”

AUTHOR: Robert J. Avino M.D. is a board-certified and fellowship-trained adult hip and knee reconstruction surgeon at Palm Beach Orthopaedic Institute. Dr. Avino specializes in robotic-assisted hip and knee replacement using the minimally invasive direct anterior approach to hip replacement, across Palm Beach County in South Florida.

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