A common problem after hip replacement surgery that I have to deal with is short leg syndrome. I am asked by the doctors involved, or the patients, to give a lift to the short leg. I will discuss the treatment of short legs in many posts, and there are several links below. I will use this patient I saw yesterday to drive home the point. Due to right hip pain, Shirley had a right hip replacement 4 years ago, and 6 years ago she had had a low back fusion at L4/L5. Following the right hip replacement, her back began to be painful again. Presently, she would describe her pain as level 8 on a scale of 0 to 10. She was sent by her pain management specialist, a physiatrist who felt she had one leg longer. After hip replacement surgery, it is tough to get accurate landmarks with palpation, so I routinely order a Standing AP Pelvic xray to get the hip joint heights, the slant of the base of the spine (sacral base unleveling), the lowering of multiple pelvic landmarks, and the lean of the spine to the right or left. In this case, the spine leans to the left, the sacral base drops to the left, and the left hip joint is approximately 7/8 inches shorter than the right. Lift therapy has just been initiated and we have a long haul in front of us after 4 years post surgery.
Welcome to the Podiatry Blog of Dr Richard Blake of San Francisco. I hope the pages can help you learn about caring for foot injuries, or help you with your own injury.
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Sunday, November 7, 2010
Hip Replacement Complication: Short Leg Syndrome
1 comment:
Thank you very much for leaving a comment. Due to my time restraints, some comments may not be answered.I will answer questions that I feel will help the community as a whole.. I can only answer medical questions in a general form. No specific answers can be given. Please consult a podiatrist, therapist, orthopedist, or sports medicine physician in your area for specific questions.
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I like your post and it is so good and I am definetly going to save it. One thing to say the In depth analysis this blog has is trully remarkable.Total Hip Replacement Surgery.
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