Joint replacement

ASENZEN - your columnist term of endear ment for senior citizens - had called, with out identifying herself asking, practically pleading that she be provided, in the simplest basic words, what really is involved in joint replacement. It was not clear whether she was the patient herself or, just like most persons, always ask a delicate question involving a cousin, a neighbor, a friend when in fact, he/she is the patient.

Many of us toss around terms like joint replacement or hip replacement without understanding exactly what it means. A joint is where two or more bones come together- such as the hip, knee, shoulder or elbow. Over time our joints undergo the attrition of aging, the so-called wear and tear, which doctors and even the layman, call joint degeneration, the most common cause of which is arthritis, but the joints can also be damaged by trauma, medications and the socalled autoimmune disorders in which autoantibodiesantibodies produced by our own body, instead of attacking foreign substances introduced into our bodies, they destroy our own tissues and cells as exemplified by rheumatoid arthritis.

Joint replacement surgery is exactly what it sounds like; removing a damaged joint and replacing it with new, although artificial one. The most commonly affected are the hips, and knees but there are some patients whose shoulders, elbows, ankles and even fingers have been replaced.

Artificial joint implants are made of plastic, metal or both. Sometimes a surgeon opts to replace the entire joint which is then called total joint replacement. Other times, the surgeon opts to replace only the damaged part of the joint, which is called partial joint replacement.

The surgical procedure is becoming more common, understandably because of more and more people are getting older beyond the usual life expectancy, proof is that majority of patients are in individuals older than 65 years. However, there is the alarming reality that more and more people aged 45-65 are opting to undergo the pro-