7 Things You Didn’t Know about Joint Replacement
“Our surgeries cure arthritis,” said Dr. Hal Chaudhary, Board Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon and Adult Joint Reconstruction Specialist at Beacon Orthopaedics.
Beacon Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, a multi-physician practice with eight locations in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, specializes in the musculoskeletal system, including state-of-the-art joint reconstruction. These modern outpatient surgeries, including total hip and knee replacement and partial (unicondylar) knee replacement, completely remove the arthritic cartilage, which prevents the condition from spreading. Taking less than 40 minutes per procedure, Dr. Chaudhary and his staff help patients return to their full athletic capabilities with reconstructions that last a lifetime.
Read on to discover 7 reasons you should consider joint replacement surgery at Beacon Orthopaedics.
1. It’s a final solution. Unlike nonsurgical options like activity modification and/or pain medication and cortisone shots (which only work temporarily and require maintenance), joint replacement serves as a permanent, one-time fix. In fact, modern implant technology has proven to be so long lasting that it is even performed on patients in their 20s or 30s, most of whom are serious athletes who developed early arthritis from sports injuries. Partial knee replacements are particularly popular among younger patients, since they allow the bad cartilage to be supplemented with a sectional implant before the arthritis spreads to the remaining good part of the joint.
People’s biggest regret is that they didn’t go through with their joint replacement sooner
2. It’s maintenance free. Once you complete the surgery and recovery process, you’ll check in with Beacon Orthopaedics once every few years, but that will only be so that Chaudhary can make sure you’re still feeling great.
3. It’s the most reliable surgery in medicine. In fact, because of the proven results and low complication rate, joint replacement, an already extremely common surgery, is becoming even more widespread, according to Dr. Chaudhary, especially knee replacements.
4. It’s an easy, outpatient procedure. Historically, patients used to stay in the hospital for a few days after surgery, but the modern practice is for patients to go home right away. Beacon performs joint replacements at its state-of-the-art outpatient center, and the practice provides pain management and a recovery pathway setup (therapy) to make sure patients sleep in their own beds the same day of their procedures.
5. It’s a fast process, including recovery. These types of surgeries only take 30 to 40 minutes, and from the initial to the final appointment (aside from follow-ups years later), the whole operation can take as little as a few weeks, if you wish. Beacon Orthopaedics makes patient access a priority.
6. It’s popular for people as young 45 years old. One of the biggest misconceptions about joint replacement is that it’s only for sedentary senior citizens. Since contemporary restorations last a lifetime, however, today’s average patient is 60 years old, with half of patients being in their 50s and many in their mid-to-late 40s, said Dr. Chaudhary. Most of them love exercise, from beach walks to hiking and biking to intensive cardio drills, and many of them are serious former athletes.
7. It shouldn’t be feared! The only way to permanently treat progressive arthritis is through surgery, and the longer you wait to go through with the procedure, the longer you will suffer unnecessarily.
“People’s biggest regret is that they didn’t go through with their joint replacement sooner,” said Dr. Chaudhary, who has almost 20 years of experience and has performed more than six thousand hip and knee reconstructions.
To find out more, schedule an appointment online, call (513) 354-3700 or (800) 773-4353, or visit one of Beacon’s eight locations across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
“You don’t have to live with the pain,” said Dr. Chaudhary.
Beacon Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine prides itself on its longtime dedication to the Arthritis Foundation, including the annual Walk for Arthritis in May and the Jingle Bell Run in January. This year, for example, Beacon Orthopaedics earned a Gold Level Sponsorship for Arthritis Walk 2019 and sent a team of more than 35 employees and their families, totaling hundreds of participants, to the event. Beacon CEO Andy Blankemeyer, who is also the Corporate Chair of the Arthritis Foundation Cincinnati Chapter, earned an honoree designation at last year’s Jingle Bell Run, and the practice earned a Silver Level Sponsorship of that event.