Ask the Expert
Video Transcription:
Probably almost universally true in my practice, any person that I’ve done both a hip and a knee replacement for will agree that their hip replacement was easier to rehab. A hip replacement is a relatively simple joint. It’s a ball-and-socket joint and, mechanically, it just works, and maybe that’s why it’s easier to recover from. A knee replacement is a complex hinge. Lots of patients may have the conception that a knee replacement is a hinge, where it’s not. You know, the parts are not mechanically linked, and it has to be able to bend like a hinge. But it also has to rotate, and it has a little bit of side-to-side and front-to-back motion that all knees have. So that’s where I think a patient’s recovery is oftentimes longer with a knee, having to be able to regain all those different types of motion to make it feel as close to normal as a knee replacement can feel.
