Hip Replacement Surgery
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Facing hip replacement surgery can cause mixed emotions. You’re ready to walk, play, and dance again, without pain or pause.
But surgery carries risk. It takes time to recover. You want to make sure that whoever does your hip replacement does it right. At UVA Health, you'll find the kind of high-performing experts you can trust.
Types of Hip Replacements We Offer
We can perform both types of hip replacements:
- Posterior hip replacement via back/side of your hip area
- Anterior hip replacement via front of your leg/hip area
Our outcomes and your experience during surgery and beyond remain the same with either option. Your doctor can review with you the pros and cons of each. Together, you can choose the best procedure for your needs.
Top-Rated Hip Replacement Surgery
Our hip replacement surgical care is recognized as some of the best in the country. U.S. News & World Report rated our care as "high performing," their highest rating.
Do You Need a Hip Replacement?
You have several options for hip pain relief that don't involve surgery. But when these don't solve your pain, you might need a new hip. Osteoarthritis happens when the normal wear and tear of life breaks down joint cartilage. This pain, stiffness, and swelling keeps getting worse. Some people end up unable to move, work, or sleep.
Other reasons for surgery may include:
- A broken hip
- Severe rheumatoid arthritis
- Bone tumors
- Loss of blood supply to the bones of the hip
- A broken hip after a hip replacement
- Deformity of the hip due to childhood problems
When It's Time for Hip Replacement
When pain relief options don't work, it might be time for a new hip. UVA Health offers a team of experts with years of experience. Orthopedic surgeon James Browne, MD, walks us through the hip replacement procedure and recovery.
Hip replacement refers to removing the ball and socket of a hip joint. So we remove a diseased and worn out femoral head, which is the ball. Then we remove a worn out and diseased acetabulum, which is the socket. And we replace that with artificial implants. By far and away, the most common reason that people come to hip replacement is osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. We refer to it as a wear and tear type arthritis, simply where the hip joint has worn out. Most of our patients present to us because they have developed pain that really is no longer responsive to non-operative measures, such as over the counter medicines, exercise and weight loss. That's when we typically start talking about surgical intervention. The decision to proceed with surgery, it's a big one. It's a big decision to make. It's a decision that we make in conjunction with the patient. So we can advise the patient as to whether or not we think they're a good candidate for surgery, whether or not we think surgery would benefit them. We have a whole team that works with patients to get them ready for surgery. A big part of hip replacement and knee replacement and having a successful outcome is making sure that the patient is really as healthy as we can get them before surgery. We also do discharge planning, making sure that the patient has a good plan for how they're going to recover at home after they're discharged from the hospital. Lengths of stay have really come down substantially over the last decade. Ten years ago, patients would routinely stay in the hospital for two or three days after the operation. Now, many times patients are able to go home the same day as the joint replacement itself. After surgery, of course there's pain, pain is part of any surgical procedure. We help manage that pain with multiple different types of medications. We try to limit opioids. Patients are up on their feet, moving around very quickly with modern joint replacement. For most patients, after a few days, things have really started to improve substantially and they're back on their feet getting back to a lot of normal activities now, after a week or two, following their hip replacement surgery. Thankfully moderate implants have gotten substantially better than older implants that we were putting in a decade or two ago. So the wear rates now are an order of magnitude lower than they used to be. There still is the possibility for wear, and there still is the possibility that the joint replacement has to be redone for other reasons, infections, loosening, breakage of the implants. Thankfully, those rates are pretty, pretty low for the first 20 to 30 years after the joint replacement is put in.
The Total Hip Replacement Surgery Procedure
We replace your hip joint with an artificial ball-and-socket joint. Your surgeon makes an incision on the skin and moves the muscles aside to get to the hip joint. Your doctor then removes the damaged bone and cartilage of the hip joint and positions the new artificial joint. Depending on the type of prosthesis, your doctor may use bone cement to hold the artificial hip firmly to your bone.
The Hip Replacement Timeline
How long does it take?
- Usual length of stay: Same-day procedure to 3 days
- You can do normal, light activities in: 6 weeks
- Life of your new hip implant: Many last 20+ years
Patient Education Resources: Hip Replacement
September 4, 2025
05030 - Orthopedics Total Hip Replacement ERAS Handbook
September 4, 2025