Three benefits of physical therapy after hip replacement surgery

Feeling pain when you walk the dog or walk around the grocery store. Having difficulty straightening your hip when getting out of the car. A decreased ability to sit all day at work without hip pain. These are just a few of the issues that patients with end-stage hip osteoarthritis can face. 

One option that’s often used to address end-stage hip osteoarthritis is a hip replacement. This surgery is designed to remove the worn-out hip joint and replace it with a specially designed implant. Considering a hip replacement? You’re not alone. It’s reported that every year 450,000 hip replacements are performed on U.S. adults. 

Successfully recovering from a hip replacement is just as important as the success of the surgery itself. A physical therapist can provide post-surgical rehab that offers many benefits. 

Physical therapy-based rehab after a hip replacement can offer these three benefits

Physical therapy specialists are trained to help people recover from a wide range of musculoskeletal issues. One type of help they can offer is post-surgical physical therapy after a hip replacement. 

Three benefits that this type of therapeutic care can offer include: 

1. Improved muscle strength — The hip joint is supported and moved by many different muscles. These muscles can be weakened or damaged by a hip replacement surgery. Physical therapists can teach you therapeutic exercises that can help improve the strength of your affected muscles. One medical study reports that doing eight weeks of physical therapy exercises led to a:

• 24.4% increase in hip flexor strength
• 47.8% increase in hip extensor strength
• 41.2% boost in hip abductor strength

2. Increased stability — A patient’s stability often suffers when they have a bad hip. This can be a serious issue as it can make trips and serious falls more likely. A physical therapist can help you address stability issues after your hip surgery. Medical researchers report that an eight-week program of therapeutic exercises led to an almost 37% improvement in stability in people recovering from a hip replacement. 

3. Address recurring symptoms — A hip that doesn’t heal properly after surgery can continue to cause you problems. In fact, some patients could experience pain and other symptoms years after their surgery. A physical therapist can help you deal with any recurring symptoms after your surgery. A study shows that physical therapy was able to help one patient by completely relieving recurring pain two years after a hip arthroplasty. 

Find effective physical therapy for your hip replacement recovery at Advent Physical Therapy

Considering a hip replacement? Our team at Advent Physical Therapy is primed to help you get the physical therapy you need both before and after your surgery. We’ll start by performing a complimentary screening of your condition. Then, we can build you a pre-surgical rehab plan to help prepare your body for surgery. Following your surgery, we can create a personalized rehab plan intended to reduce pain and decrease your recovery time. 

Not able to come into one of our clinics for an in-person appointment? No problem! Our therapy specialists offer several therapy services that you can use from home, including our at-home care and virtual therapy sessions. We can even help you get started with your therapy if you don’t have a doctor’s referral. 

Contact our team today for more information about our therapy services or to schedule an initial appointment.