Lots of people have experienced the pain that comes from joint damage; sport players with bad knees or shoulders, the elderly, and those with arthritis, to name a few.
Let’s take a football player, for example. Years and years of tackles, bad hits and hours and hours of practice running on the field. It’s no surprise when he starts complaining of knee pain, stiffness and swelling. His knee joint has simply worn away.
In walks our solution: total joint replacement; a delicate, yet very effective orthopedic surgery where the joint is replaced with a prosthesis. The surgery is becoming more and more frequent. As of 2009, about 773,000 Americans have a hip or knee replaced each year.
Let’s get back to our young athlete. He’s in knee surgery, preferably at a hospital like Brigham City Community Hospital where the surgery center is equipped with three 24-hour operating rooms and a new outpatient surgery center. Then, within 3 to 5 days he’s home again. He can even walk on his new knee with crutches the same day as the surgery. If necessary he can attend physical therapy for an interim.
Physical therapy healing at the Brigham City hospital offers both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation with a physical therapist offering nearly 20 years of clinical experience.
And when all is said and done that new knee will last our football star about 15 years.
Talk about effective intervention! And to boot, scientists are still studying replacement joints to find out which are best to improve movement and flexibility. They are also reviewing new joint materials and ways to improve surgery. Other researchers are also working to find out what causes joint damage, how to prevent it and how to treat it.
And so with confidence we can say things are looking great in the area of joint replacement, especially in Brigham City!