Limping following hip surgery

 

 

In a normal hip when you stand on one leg during walking or if you are standing still on one leg your muscles shift your body weight over that leg so that you balance on the leg.  

 

If your muscles are weak as a result of arthritis and then they are detached and re-stitched during a hip replacement, then they do not function normally.  

 

They cannot pull your body over the hip you are walking on, therefore you walk in a somewhat unbalanced way.

 

This limp is normally most apparent for the first six weeks to three months after the surgery.  The limp will normally disappear as the bulk and tone of the muscles improves and it is quite unusual for the patient to be left with any significant limp in the long term.  

 

Commonly as you recover the limp is most noticeable when you are tired, eg. after a long shopping trip.  Often the muscle power looks better when you are seen in the clinic.

 

Some great people from the history of Orthopaedics:

The anatomical studies of Leonardo da Vinci, from around 1510, are one of the great achievements of the Italian renaissance.  His work helped to lay the foundations of modern scientific medicine, and orthopaedics in particular

 

Pioneering Orthopaedic Surgeon Professor Sir John Charnley using the lathe in his workshop at home. John Charnley radically changed the treatment of hip arthritis with his total hip replacement designed in the early 1960s. 

 

Mr Mike Freeman of The London Hospital sitting with Dr John Insall  (right) of The Hospital for Special Surgery, New York in Mike Freeman's garden in about 1980.  These two individuals were responsible for working out questions of design, balance and alignment which are the basis of all good modern Total Knee Replacements.