Many return to sports after hip replacement

NEW YORK — The number of older adults participating in sports activities increases after hip replacement but declines after knee replacement for osteoarthritis, research suggests.

Osteoarthritis or OA is a common age-related disease marked by degradation of joint cartilage. OA of the hip and knee can be particularly disabling because of related pain and functional impairment.

The restoration of function and reduction of pain afforded by joint replacement (arthroplasty) should allow a return to sports activities, but little is known about sports activities actually performed by people who undergo total joint replacement.

To investigate, Dr. Klaus Huch from University of Ulm, Germany and colleagues compared lifetime sports activities, preoperative sports activities, and sports activities five years after arthroplasty in 809 patients who underwent total joint replacement due to advanced OA of the hip or knee. They report their research in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

More than 90 percent of patients had performed sports activities during their life, the authors report, but only 36 percent of patients with hip OA and 42 percent of patients with knee OA maintained those activities at the time of surgery.

Five years after surgery, 52 percent of patients with hip OA were performing sports activities, the report indicates, but only 34 percent of patients with knee OA were performing sports activities.

Pain in the replaced joint as a reason for reduced sports activities was cited twice as often after knee arthroplasty as after hip arthroplasty, the researchers note, whereas precaution as a reason for reduced sports activities was cited more commonly after hip arthroplasty than after knee arthroplasty.

“In general, total joint replacement allows a significant increase of sports activities at a five-year follow-up,” the authors conclude. But they advise against a return to certain sports activities.

“At the moment we generally suggest moderate activity, but we advise against high-impact sports activities (with often uncontrolled and physically powerful joint movements — for example, soccer, downhill skiing, tennis) after total joint replacement.”

SOURCE: Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, December 2005.