Do you have pain in your joints that impact your everyday activities? If your joint has been damaged by arthritis, a fracture or other conditions, common activities such as walking or getting in and out of a chair may be painful and difficult. You may even feel uncomfortable while resting.

If medications and the use of walking aids such as a cane are not helpful, you may want to consider joint replacement surgery at El Camino Hospital. By replacing your diseased joint with an artificial joint, replacement surgery can relieve your pain and help you get back to enjoying normal, everyday activities.

The goal of joint replacement surgery is to relieve the pain in the joint caused by the damage done to the cartilage. The pain may be so severe, you may be avoiding using the joint, weakening the muscles around the joint and making it even more difficult to move the joint.

The good news is that total joint replacement surgery has been proven over four decades to relieve severe knee or hip pain and restore function in the vast majority of patients. New advances in prosthesis design, surgical techniques, pain control and rehabilitation make surgery more successful than ever.

The orthopedic surgeons at El Camino Hospital are dedicated to providing you the latest options in joint replacement surgery so you can get back to your activities. Our team will do everything we can to make your experience as comfortable as possible. From a pre-surgery class to prepare you for the surgery and your hospital stay, all the way through the physical therapy to get you back on your feet, our team is dedicated to your best interests.

Is joint replacement right for you?

The most common condition that results in the need for joint replacement surgery is arthritis. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that affects mostly middle-aged and older adults. It causes the breakdown of joint cartilage and adjacent bone in the hips. But there could be other causes that require a joint replacement.

If you suffer from these symptoms, you could be a candidate for joint replacement surgery. Talk to your El Camino Hospital orthopedic surgeon about your options.

• Pain limits your everyday activities such as walking, bending.
• Pain continues while resting, either day or night.
• Stiffness in a joint limits your ability to move.
• You have little pain relief from anti-inflammatory drugs.
• You have harmful or unpleasant side effects from medications.
• Other treatments such as physical therapy don’t relieve pain. 

What is joint replacement surgery?

Joint replacement is when a surgeon removes an arthritic or damaged joint and replaces it with an artificial joint called a prosthesis. New technologies have made these prostheses more durable than ever. The most common kinds of replacement surgery are total hip and knee replacement.

The latest technologies available at El Camino Hospital 

Anterior MIS Total Hip Replacement

Advances in surgery now allow doctors to use techniques that leave smaller scars, require shorter hospital stays, and allow patients to recover faster.

Now orthopedic surgeons at El Camino Hospital have taken these new technologies a step further Using a specially designed surgical table and an innovative surgical technique called the “anterior MIS (minimally invasive surgery) approach,” El Camino Hospital surgeons can perform hip surgery while leaving key muscles and soft tissues undisturbed. This means an even faster recovery for you.

The anterior MIS technique has the following advantages:

• Much lower rate of dislocation
• No need for post-operative hip precautions
• More predictable limb length matching
• The fastest recovery, return to work and recreation

The anterior approach to hip replacement surgery allows the surgeon to reach the hip joint from the front of the hip as opposed to the lateral (side) or the posterior (back) approach. This way, the hip can be replaced without detachment of muscle from the pelvis or femur during surgery. The surgeon can simply work through the natural interval between the muscles. The most important muscles for hip function--the gluteal muscles that attach to the pelvis and femur--left attached and therefore do not require a lengthy healing process to recover from surgical trauma.

What this means for patients is no limitation on their movements. Patients who undergo the anterior approach have no hip precautions. They can flex their hips beyond 90 degrees, which means they can bend over to pick up a golf ball, or bend forward when standing up from a soft chair.

Minimally Invasive (Quad Muscle-sparing) Total Knee Replacement Surgery

Surgeons at El Camino Hospital have been performing these muscle sparing surgeries for over 13 years. These surgeries have the following advantages:

• More rapid return of muscle strength
• Quicker recovery time, return to work and recreation

Computer Navigation

Using an image-guided computerized system that provides detailed visual information, our surgeons can significantly improve the accuracy of the bone cut and alignment of the bone leg to get the leg straight. The objective is to combine the precision and accuracy of computer technology with the surgeon’s skill to give you the best possible outcome.

Rehabilitation After Your Surgery 

Our physical and occupational therapists work with our patients in daily therapy sessions. You’ll begin working with a physical therapist the first day after surgery. Occupational therapy, which emphasizes activities of daily living, such as dressing and bathing, begins on the second day. Working with physical and occupational therapy together three times daily is highly effective, making recovery faster and easier. Most patients walk out of the hospital in two to four days. Some patients choose to continue to work with our therapists as an outpatient.

The El Camino Joint Replacement Program is located at:

El Camino Hospital
2500 Grant Road
Mountain View, CA 94040

Phone: 650-962-4914
Fax: 650-966-9255

For a free physician referral, please call the El Camino Hospital Health Line at: 800-216-5556