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Archive for the ‘Arthritis’ Category

The Best Way to Avoid Knee Pain

04 Dec

As time passes, most of our bones, joints and muscle tissues will put through wear and tear that could make these organs less efficient in its function and also much more vulnerable to damage. Consequently, it’s vitally important to cater to these effects when an elderly person is being treated or as a preventive measures.

Of all the joints in the body, the knee joint is most likely one of many joints that takes brunt of the stressors and will be the primary site for complaints of pain among the elderly age group. The pain could arise from a variety of components also it could be the bones, cartilages, muscles or tendons. The pain that is felt can be a localized chronic ache otherwise an agonizing acute Knee Pain which sometimes radiate up or down in the affected leg.

A person, particularly the elderly, is most probably to endure these painful conditions that would certainly affect the persons activities of everyday living. Therefore, how are we going to avoid such incidence? Following are few suggestions of Knee Pain Treatment or preventive measures.

1. Put on correctly fitting shoes or sandals when walking or doing exercises.

2. Avoid running or exercising on uneven surfaces and make use of properly laid down tracks or flat surfaces in performing such exercises.

3. Put on knee guards when exercising or walking to give it support in maintaining stability while the movements are taking place.

4. Do sufficient warm up prior to indulging on strenuous exercise or physical activities then warming down exercises would also be helpful.

5. Give sufficient rest following prolonged standing, walking or following working out in order to allow the knees to recover from acute stressors.

6. Hot fermentation of the knee joint as well as cold compressions is a great type of Knee Pain Treatment since it reduce and revitalize the knees for the another day.

7. Staying away from prolonged immobility is also a significant step in preventing knee joint pain in addition to limited movements.

8. Getting healthy nutritional foods which consists of sufficient calcium, nutritional supplements would benefit in stopping prolonged joint pain and would help a fast recovery process subsequent minor injuries.

9. Avoid heavy lifting in abnormal postures as disproportionate weight distribution can bring about knee injuries and strains thereby causing pain.
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Consequently, adequate precautions in addition to healthy habits will lead to protection of the joint and therefore the avoidance of nagging knee joint pain.

 
 

Hip Replacement

03 Dec

So you’re an active baby boomer, or even younger, and you’ve found that one of your hips is either becoming very painful, curtailing your activities, or not responding to medications.
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You’ve exhausted the drugstore shelf dedicated to arthritis, and various muscle and joint aches.

Perhaps you’ve already seen your doctor, had an examination that proves you’ve lost some range of motion, and/or had an x-ray made that shows “arthritis”. The next step is most likely a visit to your friendly orthopedist. Here, you’ve been given the news! And the news is-that your problem, should you wish it to be definitively solved, involves major surgery. Major in the sense that the surgical procedure is medically so considered; Major in that it will require a lot of time and attention from you; Major in that it is a serious option you must face. And so you begin to consider- a total hip replacement or a hip resurfacing.

You’ve heard that the conventional total hip replacement has an average survival life of 15 years, after which it may have to be replaced-the so called surgical ‘re-do’. But now you learn too, there is an alternate procedure designed for younger, active patients of somewhere between 40 and 60, called a hip resurfacing. The ‘Resurf’, can give you 10, 15, or even more years before it may be required to be converted into a total tip replacement (the figures on life expectancy of a Resurf are not entirely fixed yet) As the experience is still too young for the studies in medical literature to be more definite.

A little basic anatomic information may help explain the difference between these two procedures. In essence the hip is a ball and socket joint. In both procedures the socket is revised and replaced. But the resurf, doesn’t replace all the bone of the ball part of the hip joint-particularly the part that anchors it in the femoral or thigh bone. Hence more anatomy is left intact.

The resurf procedure being offered to younger patients with enthusiasm by the orthopedic surgical community has some decidedly positive advantages if you’re a member of this younger group of patients.

  • Quicker recovery time
  • Greater safe range of hip motion,
  • Earlier rehab(generally)
  • Preservation of more bone stock

All of these things make a hip resurfacing by an experienced surgeon desirable for the younger patient.
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But just like this year’s newer better car model, the resurf is not without glitches. The following have produced lots of material for the professional literature and it is as well that candidates for the resurf procedure get in the know.
The learning curve for the performing surgeon is extremely steep. I personally would require that my surgeon do a minimum of 30 plus resurfs a year.
There is a noticeable incidence of femoral neck fractures following resurf. This is especially true for pre or peri-menopausal women, or any patient with Osteopenia (a diminished presence of calcium in the body’s bones- seen on x-ray or detected by bone density tests).
It is not the safest procedure for the obese (those whose body Mass index is over 30), or for those whose hip anatomy is significantly irregular or distorted.
Many of the implanted resurfs have been of a metal-on-metal construction, and are subject to the same metal particle shedding problems, and therefore to the same recall as the metal-on-metal total hips.

Of the two procedures, the total hip replacement has a more solid success percentage, and is less demanding of surgical technique.

What I am saying is, if you need a new hip, you need a new hip, but consider the matter carefully before you opt for this year’s model (the hip resurfacing) and take advantage of it only after knowing fully its risks.
Dr. Mary Ellen Hecht is an orthopedic surgeon and author of a new book, “A Practical Guide to Hip Surgery”. This concise handbook augments pamphlets or videos supplied in your surgeon’s office. The book as well as this article is written in user friendly English, but has the gravitas of thirty-five years of medical practice directly from an orthopedic surgeon who has performed countless hip surgeries and undergone a double hip replacement herself!