Surgery decision and care plan

Assessment of the need for treatment at Coxa

Once your referral has arrived at Coxa, we will invite you to an assessment appointment by letter. During the appointment, the decision to operate is taken and an individual care plan prepared. You will also receive instructions on preparing for surgery.

During the treatment need assessment appointment, you will also meet a nurse who will give you instructions on preparing for surgery.

Need for surgery will be assessed together with the doctor

The appointment with the orthopedist involves preparing the assessment of the need for treatment, discussing the risks associated with the surgery, recovery from the surgery and the selection of an artificial joint.

A good outcome is a team effort. The surgical team of Coxa is committed to doing its best to ensure that you get a well-functioning artificial joint. In order to achieve a good outcome, you are expected to start walking very early on in the process despite the pain and to do the exercises diligently according to the given instructions.

Joint replacement surgery involves risks

A joint replacement surgery at Coxa is a very safe procedure and the related complications are rare. Good treatment planning, surgical technique and preventive medication can significantly prevent them.

However, all surgeries involve risks:

• The risk of serious complications leading to a repeat operation is less than 2%. These include wound and artificial joint infections, post-operative venous thrombosis, bone fractures and joint dislocations.
• Risks of a surgical intervention and aggravation of underlying diseases
• Artificial joint infection. For those operated on at Coxa, incidence is 0.5% within one year of the operation (the generally acceptable level is less than 2%).
• A mechanical issue of the artificial joint. The probability of no mechanical issues occurring in the artificial joint during the first 10 years is over 95%.

Individual care plan

In addition to the surgery plan, we will prepare an individual care plan during the assessment appointment and, to that end, we will need extensive information about your health, possible underlying diseases, the medicines and natural products you are taking and, for example, your support network after the surgery.

The nurse will record in the discharging plan the estimated time for discharging from the hospital agreed during the appointment. You will be discharged from the hospital when you are able to move around at home with the help of aids, wound healing has begun and pain is under control with the help of medication. Often, patients are discharged from Coxa on the day after the operation.

Artificial joint selection

Each joint replacement surgery is carefully planned. The orthopaedic surgeon plans the operation using a computer on the basis of X-rays taken with a measuring tool, and an artificial joint model suitable for the patient’s needs is selected for each operation.

Thanks to our own research activities, Coxa Hospital for Joint Replacement has accurate and up-to-date information on artificial joints on the market. In artificial joint surgeries, we use models that our research has proven to be the best options for our patients. ZimmerBiomet and DePuySynthes supply artificial joints to Coxa.

The artificial joints or implants are made of hard plastics, cobalt-chrome, steel, titanium and ceramics. The artificial joint can be attached to the bone with so-called bone cement or it can be cement-free, in which case the bone grows to the surface of the implant.

Bone grafts, plates and screws may also be needed in artificial joint surgery.