What Happens After a Joint Replacement?

What to Expect in the Hospital After Joint Replacement

As a specialist in joint replacement, I am frequently asked “What happens while I am in the hospital?”   On the day of your surgery, you will be asked to arrive at the hospital 2 or 3 hours before the start of the procedure.  You may want to bring a book as you will spend a fair amount of time waiting.  You will arrive at the hospital and sign in.  A nurse will bring you to the pre-operative area and you will change into a hospital gown.  An IV will be started. The anesthesiologist will review your health history and discuss anesthetic options.  Often spinal or epidural anesthesia or local nerve blocks are used to help control your pain before or after surgery.  You will meet the nurses who will be in the operating room assisting with the surgery.  Your surgeon will talk to you, answer any questions, review the consent form, and mark the joint that is being replaced.

Although you are awake when you are taken into the operating room, very few people actually remember that part of the day.  After the surgery is over, you will wake up in the recovery room where you will stay for 1-3 hours before being moved up to your room.  Due to privacy issues with the other patients most of the time your family cannot visit with you until after you are in your room.   The rest of the day is a time to recover.  Nurses will check on you frequently and monitor your blood pressure and pulse rate.   Typically you will have a catheter in your bladder so you will not have to get up to use the bathroom; the catheter is removed postoperative day one.  You will have blood drawn every morning while you are in the hospital.

The next day, you will meet the physical therapist. Depending on how you are feeling you may just sit on the side of the bed or you may even walk in the room.  The therapists will teach you to use a walker or crutches and assist you the first few times you get out of bed.  They usually work with you twice a day.  By the third day after surgery, most patients are able to get out of bed on their own, walk short distances with a walker, and climb 2 or 3 stairs. If you are having difficulty doing these things, we will discuss going to a nursing facility for more intensive physical therapy for 1-2 weeks before going home.   However, most people are able to return home after joint replacement surgery. Although the first few days can be difficult, the pain from arthritis is gone, replaced by surgical pain which will improve with time.  The first two weeks after joint replacement are the most difficult, with slow but steady improvement thereafter.