Elderly body no barrier to knee and hip replacement surgery
Age alone should not be a barrier for the elderly undergoing knee or hip replacement surgery to relieve severe arthritis, with researchers finding that many surgery candidates and even some physicians, were not aware of the growing body of evidence, that the elderly can usually withstand the rigours of surgery and rebound like a younger person.
According to an article in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, patients aged 75 and older took about the same amount of time to return to regular activities as those age 65 to 74, with most patients requiring assistance with activities such as shopping and household chores for more than a month.
“None of these (surgical) patients died, 17% had postoperative complications, and 38% had pain lasting more than four weeks following surgery,” the medical team, headed by Dr Mary Hamel, said.
Dr Hamel noted that physicians should benefit from the research in their treating even some very old patients, given that the study involved some patients who were well into their 80s.
“In particular,” she said, “the value of replacement surgery should receive higher consideration on the aged.”
“Joint replacement surgery was not offered as a treatment option for many patients, suggesting that some physicians may not provide elderly patients with the opportunity to choose this effective treatment,” the researchers wrote.
“Not surprisingly, patients who were more concerned about the risks of surgery and about a long surgical recovery were less likely to have joint replacements,” they noted.
