Hip replacement surgery, or total hip arthroplasty (tha), can lessen pain and improve function in individuals with hip osteoarthritis, but some patients content to experience deficits – Including muscle weakness, decreased functional mobileity, and Increased Fall Risk -AFTER the procedure.

New research Published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research Reveals that a patient’s muscle quality before tha may predict their risk of such suboptimal recovery after surgery.

In the study, 10 people undergoing tha underwent imaging tests before surgery. Patients with imaging results indicated poor muscle Quality we more likely to perform poorly on movements tasks after surgery, compared with the good muscle Quality. The Severity of Patients’ osteoarthritis before surgery (as indicated by the imaging tests performed) was not linked to their functional abilitys after surgery.

“The Findings from this study indicate that hip muscle quality may be an important predictor of post-operative biomechanical recoverry following haip replacing. Resonance imaging iseded to visualize muscle composition, which is not routinely collected for hip replacement patients, “said corresponding author jeannie f. baily, pH.D., of the usiversite California, San Francisco.

“Future Studies will seek to undersrstand Possible Implications for Poor Hip Muscle Quality on Long-Term Functional Outomes.”