What does dislocation of the hip mean?
During your pre-operative assessment and post-operative early rehabilitation, a lot of emphasis will be put on caring for your hip to prevent it dislocating. Dislocation occurs when the ball on top of the femur comes out of the socket within your pelvis. This is most likely to happen during the early post-operative phase when the soft tissues around the hip are not supportive. They are not supportive because any approach to the hip involves cutting the muscles or capsule into the hip joint. Some techniques of hip replacement surgery are more stable than others although there is a risk with every hip replacement. The advice that you are given in terms of mobilising after the operation will minimise the risk of it dislocating and as the soft tissues heal up, the risk becomes much less. If it does occur, and this is usually in the early post-operative phase, the usual course of events would be to have the hip reduced back into its proper position. This may require a general anaesthetic. I
