Knee joint Injuries and Hip injuries which require replacement

·         Knee joint injuries or disease

o   Serious traumatic damage to knee joint due to breakage or paradoxical motion

o   Arthritic conditions can cause articular cartilage to wear out due to massive usage or wearing out due to impact and immense shock absorbance that slowly wears out the cartilage. Aging usually causes the cartilage to wear out. There is a more serious form of arthritis known as Rheumatoid arthritis that leads to destruction of the cartilage. This can be dangerous and requires immediate knee surgery because once the cartilage wears out the two bones that are connected by the knee start to rub against each other causing great pain and inability to move. The knee basically locks into place because there is no gliding motion of the knee as you see in a regular walk. The walk is basically choppy and stiff if the cartilage is not in place.

·         Hip Joint injuries or diseases

o   Severe arthritis can cause deterioration of hip joint

o   Trochanteric bursitis

§  For those of you that don’t know what a trochanter is, it is a bony prominence on the lower side of the hip joint.  The bursa on the other hand is a jelly like sac that covers the trochanter and protects the trochanter’s hard prominence from rubbing against the skin or the underside of the skin. Over time, this bursa can be irritated or start to wear out. This is what is called bursitis. This is painful and is a sign that there is a need for hip replacement because daily activities even the simplest ones such as sitting down or walking can cause severe pain.

o   Herniated hip disk

o   Hip fracture through traumatic incident (i.e. A major fall, collision impact, etc)

§  Any traumatic incident that causes the hip joint to completely break is difficult to fix, especially at greater ages. The broken hip joint will demobilize a person completely unless there is some form of transport. Sitting down will be impossible if this is the condition, thus, immediate surgical replacement is an utmost necessity.

o   Hip joint socket wears out or is fractured

§  If a hip joint is fractured, then a person is practically unable to walk until the fracture heals. The fracture cannot completely heal because there will be an uneven development in the hip and it will cause a loss of balance.

This is an image of trochanteric bursitis. The inflamed point is shown as pointed to and due to its inflammation, it starts to lose the ability to protect the dermis and layers of soft tissue from the hard edges of the bone