Younger individuals staying active later in life can choose to recover at home with outpatient hip replacements. The benefits of outpatient surgeries are many vs. traditional inpatient surgery. With same-day surgery, you can return to the comfort of your own home, allowing for faster healing, less pain, and less infection risk. You check in to the surgery center in the morning, and you are discharged home on the same day or after one night.
Benefits include:
- Better anesthesia methods: With same-day surgery, a combination of local anesthesia and pain medications for better pain control. These methods improve pain control and limit the use of opioid medication.
- Minimally invasive surgery: Joint replacement can be done through smaller incisions to ensure minor tissue trauma. Minimally invasive surgery through the Direcat Anterior Approach provides faster healing and quicker recovery.
- Cutting-edge surgical techniques: With an outpatient hip replacement, advanced surgical approaches combined with robotic-assisted surgery allow the surgeon to improve the process of implant placement while preserving tissue and muscle.
- Early mobilization: When recovering at home, patients are encouraged to get up and move soon as possible to prevent complications such as blood clots and help maximize the range of motion in the joint.
- Less infection risk at home: The risk of infection is considerably less when recovering at home, making same-day joint replacement a potentially safer option for the patient.
- Less expensive than inpatient recovery: Even with good insurance, it can cost thousands of dollars for one night's stay in the hospital — one study found that inpatient surgery costs 350% more than outpatient.
- Convenience. The convenience of recovering in your home generally makes recovery time easier than an in-hospital stay as you are in the comfort of your own home and encouraged to get up and move.
The key to a successful joint replacement surgery is to get on your feet as quickly as possible and begin the rehabilitation process immediately. Many patients find it more convenient to recover and rehab at home.
Patients who undergo outpatient procedures can often return to work sooner than people who experience an inpatient surgical procedure. With outpatient hip replacement surgery, recovering at home allows for faster healing, less pain, and better patient outcomes.
Dr. Robert Cagle is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in joint replacement surgery of the Knee and Hip using the latest technology and techniques for better patient outcomes. Get back to your active lifestyle with outpatient hip replacement.
