Hip replacement reduces heart failure, depression and diabetes

US scientists identified over 43,000 people with osteoarthritis of the hip from 1998 to 2009. They divided the patients into two groups: those receiving total hip replacements and those not. Participants were followed up for a year and nearly 24,000 were tracked for seven years.

As well as improving life quality and diminishing pain, total hip replacement  was associated with reduced mortality, heart failure, depression and diabetes rates in people with osteoarthritis.

On the negative side, the hip replacement group in this study had increased risk of ischemic heart disease and atherosclerosis at one year, and an increased risk of “cardiovascular disease unspecified” over all time points.

Having hip replacement operations was also cost effective even though in the US people have to pay for operations. The team worked out that over seven years, those who didn’t receive the hip operation spent $82,788 on medical care versus $89,154 for those who did have the operation. But this does not take into account the cost of pain killers – and it is likely that those who didn’t have the hip replacement would have spent more on these.

“The study has demonstrated that total hip replacement confers a potential long-term benefit in terms of prolonged lifespan and reduced burden of disease in Medicare patients with osteoarthritis of the hip,” said Dr Scott Lovald, lead study author.