Monthly Archives: March 2019

More Older Adults With Joint Replacements Recover At Home, Not Rehab

Hips for You About Total Hip Replacement Posted on by

By Judith Graham  https://khn.org/news/more-older-adults-with-joint-replacements-recover-at-home-not-rehab/

Older adults and their families often wonder: Where’s the best place to recover after a hip or knee replacement — at home or in a rehabilitation facility?

Increasingly, the answer appears to be home if the procedure is elective, friends and family are available to help and someone doesn’t have serious conditions that could lead to complications.

This trend is likely to accelerate as evidence mounts that recuperating at home is a safe alternative and as hospitals alter medical practices in response to changing Medicare policies.

The newest data comes from a March study in JAMA Internal Medicine of 17 million Medicare hospitalizations of people from 2010 to 2016. All the patients were older adults and went home or to a skilled nursing facility after a medical procedure or a serious illness. Knee and hip replacements were the most common reason for these hospitalizations.

People who …

7-year Study of Vitamin E-Diffused Highly Crosslinked Polyethylene Total Hip Replacement Device

Hips for You About Total Hip Replacement Posted on by

7-year evaluation of a new formulation of vitamin E-diffused highly crosslinked polyethylene

March 14, 2019 LAS VEGAS — At the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting, Charles R. Bragdon, PhD, associate director of clinical studies and director of Partners’ Orthopedic Registries at Harris Orthopaedic Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, spoke about results of a 7-year evaluation of a new formulation of vitamin E-diffused highly crosslinked polyethylene.

He said that results of the prospective, blinded, randomized controlled trial of 67 patients indicate that in contrast to conventional polyethylene, which is minimally crosslinked and wears at 0.1 mm per year, this formulation of polyethylene and others before it essentially have undetectable wear over time.

“Wear is no longer a function time,” he said. “It is not a function of head size. It is not a function of body weight. We have been able to remove the wear from the equation of …