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Joint Replacement

Beacon Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine is home to many of the region’s leading joint replacement specialists and orthopedic physicians who are passionate about helping you reduce or cure joint pain and return to enjoying life. The subspecialty-trained orthopedic doctors understand how debilitating hip, knee, and shoulder pain can be. It is important to consult with a specialist to determine the best treatment option to relieve your joint pain.

Your Knee Replacement Doctors

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Joint Pain Treatment

The experts at Beacon Orthopaedics are not jack-of-all-trades doctors — they’re specialists. With advanced training in their areas of expertise, you can rest easy knowing your physician has in-depth knowledge and experience with your specific issue. Your unique path to recovery may include anything from orthobiologics, physical therapy, or arthroscopic surgery to partial joint replacement or total joint replacement surgery.

Our goal is to ensure patients have a high level of comfort in their care plan. To do that, we’ll discuss all of your treatment options and identify the best one for you, together.

Seeing a doctor as soon as you begin experiencing joint pain is critical. Oftentimes, the quicker you seek care, the less intensive the treatment you’ll require. At Beacon, surgical intervention is often reserved for when other non-invasive treatments haven’t worked, or no longer work, as desired.

Your Hip Replacement Physicians

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Your Shoulder Replacement Doctors

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Total Joint Replacement

Most cases of joint pain are caused by degenerative damage to your articular cartilage, the cartilage that lines the ends of your bones.  The breaking down of cartilage is usually caused by overuse, arthritis, an injury, or another condition.

When lifestyle changes, physical therapy, or injection therapies are no longer effective at reducing your joint pain, your doctor may recommend total joint replacement.  Please note that if it is your knee, an orthopedic surgeon may be able to recommend a partial knee replacement, in which only a section of damaged cartilage is replaced. In a total joint replacement, the arthritic or damaged parts of the joint are replaced with an artificial joint made of metal, plastic, or ceramic, called a “prosthesis”.

Joint Replacement Procedure

Most cases of joint pain are caused by cartilage deterioration. More specifically, they’re symptomatic of degenerative damage to your articular cartilage, the cartilage that lines the ends of your bones. It’s usually aggravated by overuse, arthritis or an injury.

When lifestyle changes, physical therapy or injection therapies are no longer reducing your joint pain, your doctor may recommend joint replacement. In joint replacement, your partial or total joint is replaced with an artificial one made of metal, plastic or ceramic.

Your hips can be damaged by arthritis, fractures and other conditions, which cause pain during normal activities like walking, sitting and standing — even putting on your socks and shoes can become difficult. If medications, changes in your everyday activities, and the use of walking supports don’t help alleviate your discomfort, it may be time to consider safe and effective hip replacement surgery to relieve your pain, increase motion, and help you get back to enjoying your daily routine. Along with hip replacement, Beacon’s Dr. Joshua Murphy is one of few physicians in the Tri-State area to perform Birmingham Hip Resurfacing surgery as well.

Partial and Total Knee Replacement

Like most joint pain, knee pain can be debilitating. It can interfere with common movements like climbing stairs or even just sitting. If your knee is severely damaged by arthritis or injury and nonsurgical treatments are no longer helpful, knee replacement surgery could be the right option for you.

As a safe and effective procedure, your Beacon surgeon is here to provide you with the best of care to relieve pain, correct leg deformity, and help you get back to living your life with less pain and better mobility.

Knee replacement can also be thought of as a resurfacing of the knee because only the surface of the bones are replaced. Depending on the cause of your knee condition, your physician will recommend a partial or total knee replacement when non-invasive options no longer alleviate your discomfort.

Shoulder Joint Replacement

While knee and hip replacement surgeries are some of the most common joint replacement surgeries needed by our patients, shoulder joint replacement surgery is also proven to significantly improve the quality of life for people suffering from shoulder pain.

Shoulder joint pain most commonly occurs in patients aged 50 years and older — often stemming from wear and tear on the shoulder joint which causes degeneration of the cartilage. Younger patients are susceptible to shoulder pain as well, and anyone who has already tried medications and modifying their activity without improvement can hope for pain relief through shoulder joint replacement. If it’s decided that you’d benefit from a surgical approach, your expert physician will work with you to determine the right replacement surgery.

Ankle Joint Replacement

Ankle replacement surgery serves to treat a patient with severe arthritis of the ankle by resurfacing the bone surfaces at the ankle joint. Metal components articulate with a plastic component to allow for pain relief and range of motion. Recent research has shown improved outcomes and survival rates for ankle replacements as a viable solution for severe ankle arthritis, and several patients at Beacon have taken advantage of this option with our team. Let’s go over some of the basic information you need to know about this exciting surgical treatment.

Ankle replacement surgery can be performed as an outpatient or an overnight stay at a hospital. A nerve block will help control pain during and after surgery. The leg would be protected in a splint until seen in the office 8-10 days later. A boot is used as a cast until seen 6 weeks after surgery. There is a period of no weight bearing initially after surgery to allow the bones to heal to the implants. Recovery usually occurs progressively over a six-month period.

Your Ankle Replacement Physicians

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Common Conditions Requiring Joint Replacement Surgery

  • Avascular Necrosis (Or Osteonecrosis)
  • Childhood Hip Disease
  • Hip Arthritis
  • Hip Osteoarthritis
  • Hip Pain
  • Knee Arthritis
  • Knee Osteoarthritis
  • Knee Pain
  • Post-Traumatic Arthritis
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis
  • Rotator Cuff Tear Arthropathy
  • Shoulder Pain

Common Procedures and Treatments

What to Expect: From Procedure to Recovery and Results

Whether your surgery is at a Beacon location or hospital, total joint replacement surgery is a procedure that typically takes around one hour to complete. Incision location will vary depending on the type of your procedure.

  • Minimally invasive hip replacements: the incision is usually only a few inches on the front of your hip. 
  • Partial and total knee replacements: the incision is often in front of the joint’s location.
  • Shoulder replacement incisions: how the surgeon performs your operation will determine where your incision is. Reverse total shoulder replacement incisions are made on the front of your joint.

 

Rehabilitation and recovery will be different for every patient, depending on a variety of factors. In most cases you will be encouraged to begin using your new joint soon after the completion of your surgery. However, if you’ve lost muscle support around the joint before the surgery, recovery can take more time. Experiencing soreness for up to a few months post-surgery is common while your body adjusts and heals.

Beacon’s highly integrated approach to treatment works to ensure the best outcomes possible for our patients. After your surgery and as you follow your recovery instructions, you should be able to move with more comfort and greater range of motion than before your joint replacement. New joints should last for two to three decades — giving you a better quality of life.