The actual hip surgery

Hip joint replacement surgery takes place in an operating theatre. You must lie on your healthy side during the surgery so that the damaged hip is facing upwards. Support will be placed on the front and back of your pelvis to ensure that you are lying straight.

The operating nurse or surgeon will clean your leg with disinfectant, which has a yellow colour. This colour will remain on your leg after the surgery. It'll gradually disappear over the course of a week.

Thereafter, your leg will be covered, so that only the area of the hip to be operated, as well as your head, won't be covered. In this way you won't be able to see what the surgeon is doing during the operation. Unless you sleep, you will hear sounds, and you'll notice that your leg is pushed about, but you will not feel any pain.

The surgeon will make a longitudinal incision in the skin on the outside, to the rear of the hip bone. Thereafter, the area leading to the hip joint will be opened up. Now the surgeon can access the bones.

The femoral head is lifted out of the socket in the pelvis. The damaged femoral head will be removed by cutting across the femoral collum and making space for the artificial hip in the femur. The damaged cartilage in the joint socket is scraped away so the artificial socket can be implanted.

The artificial hip joint can be fixed with or without cement. Before the operation, the surgeon will have told you which type of prosthesis he plans to implant, and why he chose this type of artificial hip just for you.

When the artificial hip has been inserted and set in place, the muscle and skin are closed again. The three layers are closed and it is often chosen to close the skin using small clips. The clips are also called staples. It's also possible to suture the skin. Both the clip and sutures must be removed about 14 days after the operation.