Across the UK it is estimated that there are 90,000 hip replacements and 70,000 knee implant surgeries conducted annually.
London (PRWEB UK) 26 March 2014
As the body ages it can sustain minor and sometimes major injuries to the skeletal structure, the bones turn brittle and many people develop degenerative diseases that can particularly affect the joints, causing pain and limiting movement.
One of the leading causes of stiffness, pain and lack of mobility is arthritis or more specifically osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis which causes damage to the cartilage of the joints and can ultimately cause the bones to grind into each other, bringing extreme pain to the joint area.
Those with osteoarthritis may sustain partial or complete damage to the knee or hip joint, and although receiving an earlier diagnosis can help alleviate most of the pain through various treatments currently available, those over the age of 50 usually require some form of surgery as a long-term solution for these degenerative joint diseases.
Unfortunately, even after receiving joint replacement surgery, a minimum rate of 10 percent develops osteolysis post surgery, which is an inflammatory reaction to particles of the implant in the surrounding bones. This requires revision surgery to exchange implants in the joint that is usually less successful than the first one and typically expensive.
Across the UK it is estimated that there are 90,000 hip replacements and 70,000 knee implant surgeries conducted annually, with joint replacement surgery expected to increase in the coming years due to obesity, premature aging and other modern health issues.
Many new studies have been conducted to assess the causes of osteolysis, particularly in women, and the relationship between oestrogen and the deterioration of bone density, with the surprising discovery that HRT can cut the risk of revision surgery by 40 percent. http://bit.ly/OYa2QN.
A new study led by the University of Oxford and published in the January Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, analysed data from almost 11,000 women across the UK who had received knee or hip replacement for the first time between the years 1986 and 2006.
The women’s details had been entered into the primary care General Practice Research Database (GPRD), which holds millions of anonymised medical records for patients across the UK. More than 21,000 eligible women who met the criteria had not used HRT, while more than 3500 had done so for at least six months, providing matched samples of 2700 HRT users and 8100 women who had not used HRT.
The risk of repeat surgery was tracked in both sets of women for a minimum of three years. Those who had taken HRT regularly for six months or more after their surgery were 38% less likely to require repeat surgery than were those who had not done so.
Furthermore, those who regularly took HRT for 12 months or more after their procedure were more than 50% less likely to need further surgery during the three year monitoring period. Taking HRT before surgery, however, made no difference to the risk of implant failure, the findings showed. http://bit.ly/1gX0xY5.