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A patient who comes in with knee pain or hip pain who has then been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of that joint will usually be treated conservatively. If they respond well to conservative treatment, we continue that conservative therapy until such time as the treatment no longer is relieving their symptoms or allowing them to do what they want for their activities of daily living. At that point in time, they would then be a candidate for a joint replacement. Joint replacements do remarkably well. There is a significant period of rehabilitation after the joint replacement. Patients usually need to be in the hospital for at least two days, if not up to five days, and will need aggressive physical therapy to get their body used to the new joint. Basically, by the three month mark, most patients are able to do almost everything they have wanted to do prior to the joint replacement.
