Francis Webb had always enjoyed an active lifestyle - until chronic hip pain gradually limited her movement. It hurt to walk. It hurt to bend over. Even housework became a painful struggle. Only hip replacement surgery could restore an active, pain-free life. "But I put off surgery as long as I could," recalls Webb, a resident of Fancy Gap, in southwestern Virginia.
That's because she dreaded a long and painful recovery. And for good reason: traditional hip replacement surgery requires a large, 10- to 12-inch incision that cuts through layers of muscle and tendons. Many patients need extensive physical therapy afterward, with full recovery taking three to six months. Her sister had the surgery on both hips, so Webb saw firsthand the grueling recovery that lay ahead. "She has a scar that you wouldn't believe," Webb reveals.
Her outlook changed, however, after learning of a new technique, called minimally invasive hip replacement, which requires a 4-inch cut instead of the standard foot-long incision. There is less trauma to the muscles and ligaments around the hip, and patients can usually leave the hospital after a few days compared to five days for the traditional operation. Most patients are out of bed and walking with crutches or a walker within 24 hours of surgery, returning to normal activities in a matter of weeks rather than months.
Webb asked her doctor to refer her to a local surgeon who could perform the minimally invasive procedure. "But no one did this type of operation," she says. "My doctor said you're going to have to go UVa." So Webb drove four hours to meet with orthopaedic surgeon Khaled Saleh, M.D., head of joint replacement surgery at the University of Virginia Health System, who performed her small-incision hip replacement surgery in early 2005. Just as she expected, the pain was minimal. "I didn't have any pain in the hospital," she says. "They gave me a couple of pain pills the first night, but I didn't have to take any."
Just six weeks after the surgery, Webb was walking two miles. She quickly returned to an active lifestyle that includes gardening and bowling. "Everybody tells me they can't believe I had a hip replacement," she says.
Her only regret? Waiting so long to have the surgery. "No one should put off surgery because it's so much easier than living with the pain," she offers.
Read more about UVa's Division of Joint Replacement and Adult Reconstructive Surgery.
