For Baby Boomers, It's Hip to Undergo Surgery

When Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick had a hip operation, the 53-year-old joined a growing number of baby boomers who are opting for joint replacement surgery sooner rather than later.

Physicians used to tell patients in their 50s to wait a while, said Dr. Scott Abramson at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands (RHCI). "People would suffer in silence for 10 years until the surgeons were willing to do" the hip replacement.

But with improving technology, fewer complications and longer-lasting implants -- hip-joint replacements now last 20 to 25 years -- surgeons are operating on younger and younger people.

RHCI now sees outpatients in their 40s recovering from hip surgery, said Abramson, a rehabilitation physician. "They want to stay active," he said.

"Baby boomers are less tolerant of restrictions on their lifestyle," said Dr. Scott Harris, an orthopedic surgeon in Bourne, Mass., who does about 30 hip replacements a year at Falmouth Hospital. Without surgery, he said, "their quality of life would be limited."

For Kate Orth, a 52-year-old Sandwich, Mass., resident, the pain of not being able to enjoy outdoor activities last summer removed any doubts she may have had about the surgery.

Her osteoarthritis had been getting progressively worse, and she could no longer go for walks with her dog, swim or bicycle.

"It was bone on bone," said Orth, who works as an outpatient scheduler at RHCI, about the pain. "I said this is it -- it's time."

The hardest part for the mother of two was carving out space for the surgery, which kept her out of work for eight weeks. She spent three days in Jordan Hospital in Plymouth and was in a rehabilitation facility for a couple of days. When she first got home, she was under the care of a visiting nurse, and then was a physical therapy outpatient at RHCI twice a week.

Patrick is expected to recuperate at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for four to five days and will follow up with outpatient rehabilitation, according to a press release from his office. The governor has said he expects to work from home shortly after his surgery.