Hip Surgery Specifications

   I saw my orthopedic doctor yesterday. I'll be returning to work on March 29th. While I was at the doctor's office, I got to see an example of the artificial joint. Here's a pic of the artificial hip joint.

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   The ball joint is composed of oxinium while the part that fits into the femur is made out of titanium. The part that fits into the femur is porous and ridged so the bone will grow into it and lock the artificial joint into the bone. The socket is an acetabulum shell. The outer part is composed of titanium while the inner liner is polyethylene. The only part of the joint that wears down is the polyethylene liner. The doctor recommended that I lose weight and not stress the joint too much so as to limit wear and tear on the liner.

  The next photo shows two x-rays of my hip. The right x-ray shows my hip joint before the surgery and the left is after the surgery'

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  If you look at the right x-ray, you'll notice a dark spot on the ball joint of the femur. This is where the bone collapsed. That's what I've been walking on for the longest time. On the left, you see the artificial joint. You see how the shaft extends down into the femur. A long screw attaches the socket to the hip bone. The hip bone will grow into the outer titanium cup to further lock it in place. 

  I handled the sample joint fitting the ball joint into the socket. The ceramic zirconium oxide outer surface of the ball joint along with the polyethylene inner surface of the socket allows the joint to move without much friction.

  The specs for my artificial joint are as follows; A Smith and Nephew uncemented total hip arthroplasty with a 52mm acetabular shell. R3 with an apex hole eliminator and a reflection. Polyethylene acetabular liner, 36mm neutral with a lateral offset size 3. Polar femoral stem with an oxinium femoral head 36 +4mm inner diameter for a 12/14 taper. I'm not sure what all that means but the doctor said that I need to keep a copy of these specs in my glove box. I've scanned the hip specs document the doctor gave me into my computer and uploaded a copy of file to the MyIHR web page. Copies have also been installed on my eMedTag flash drives. That way should some other doctor need to do surgery on my hip at a later date, they'll have the necessary information regarding my artificial joint.