Patient/caregiver was instructed upon complications involved during immediate phase  of hip replacement surgery as follows:

Blood loss:

  1. Joint replacement surgery can involve moderate blood loss. Transfusion might become necessary in some cases.
  2. Your surgeon will make needed arrangement for the transfusion, as part of preparation for the scheduled surgery.

Infection:

  1. Some individuals could present with infection at the surgical site during the initial few weeks post hip replacement surgery. Individuals can present with fever, foul smelling drainage from the surgical site, progressively increasing pain at the surgical site, and swelling of the joint.
  2. Your surgeon can thoroughly wash the joint, prescribe IV antibiotics for 4 – 6 weeks, and draw weekly labs to monitor the response to the antibiotic. This measure could help clear the infection and avoid further extensive measures.
  3. In case the infection is not cleared with this initial measure or the individual presents with infection of the prosthetic joint years after the initial hip replacement surgery, your surgeon could employ more extensive measures for infection control.
  4. Your surgeon could get the prosthetic out of the joint, thoroughly wash the joint to clear the infection, and do a temporary hip replacement using bone cement loaded with antibiotic.
  5. The antibiotic gets released out of the bone cement slowly to kill the infection in the joint. Your surgeon could place you on IV antibiotics also concurrently to accomplish the goals for infection control.
  6. Weekly labs could be drawn to monitor the response to antibiotic. Once the infection is cleared, your surgeon could perform the final surgery to put the prosthetic parts back in the joint.

Injury to the nerves and blood vessels:

  1. In the lower limb, arteries & veins providing blood supply & venous drainage and nerves providing nerve supply to the lower leg travel in close relation to the hip joint.
  2. These structures can be at risk for injury during surgery for hip replacement, thus compromising the blood and nerve supply to the lower leg.
  3. Report to your surgeon regarding any pale or bluish discoloration of the surgical limb below the hip.
  4. Also, report to your surgeon for further investigation, regarding any numbness in the surgical limb below the hip.