Specific patient characteristics might contribute to poor recovery after hip replacement surgery

Hip replacement surgery, or total hip arthroplasty (THA), can lessen pain and improve function in individuals with hip osteoarthritis, but some patients continue to experience long-term physical deficits—including muscle weakness, decreased functional mobility, 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 whose imaging results indicated poor muscle quality were more likely to perform poorly on movement tasks after surgery, compared with those with good muscle quality. The severity of patients’ osteoarthritis before surgery (as indicated by the imaging tests performed) was not linked to their functional abilities after surgery.

“The findings from this study indicate that hip muscle quality may be an important predictor of post-operative biomechanical recovery following hip replacement. Muscle quality is often overlooked, and magnetic resonance imaging is needed to visualize muscle composition, which is not routinely collected for hip replacement patients,” said corresponding author Jeannie F. Bailey, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco.

“Future studies will seek to understand possible implications for poor hip muscle quality on long-term functional outcomes.”