Hip Joint Replacement

Replace your hip, and you'll be able walk just like before. This is one of the miracles achieved by the advancement of the medical and surgical practices.

Hip replacement (joint replacement) surgeries are done in increasing numbers throughout the world. This indicates the high positive outcome rates of the surgery. A total of 50 000 total hip replacements are been done in United Kingdom every year.

The prognosis of the surgery is very good and 95% of the patients are found to have a almost normal joint movements without any pain. The replaced joined may function really well even for more than 20 years. 

As a result of high number of people getting their joints replaced, the number of people with failure is also increasing, but this is a relative increase, not an absolute one.

I have met with several patients who had to get their hip joints replaced due to advanced stages of rheumatoid arthritis  and osteoarthritis. One of them had a her both knee and hip joints replaced and now her condition has really improved. She says that now she can walk with no pain at all.

References:

Bailey and Love's Short Practice of Surgery 25th Edition

Russell’s Silver Syndrome

One day I saw my colleagues gathered in the play room of the pediatric ward. I heard someone talking, but the voice didn’t sound like a child’s voice, neither a grown up’s. It was like an ant talking loud and clear. The sound reminded me of the aliens that were in a cartoon that I watched when I was little.

I peeked through the crowd and was surprised by what I saw. The sound came from a little child who was really small in size. He was a little taller than a new born baby, but he could stand, talk, eat and   everything else that a 5 year old could do. The most interesting thing was that his intelligence was better than a five year old. He was very witty and playful. He talked to everybody around him. Everybody seemed to be fascinated by his presence.

There was something unusual in his face. His face was triangular which reminded me of the Russell’s Silver baby in the text book. Yes, this child was also a one with the Russell’s Silver syndrome.

I talked to the mother and found out that her marriage was a consanguine marriage, but I looked in the book and in the internet and found out that consanguinity does not cause this syndrome.

His mother, unlike many mothers with syndromic babies was very happy and was not angry with anybody. She was very cooperative and seemed to be happy about the way her child was talking to everybody in the ward. It was a quality that I always admired in her and always will.

I've seen mothers who didn't even like to talk with anybody. They were very uncooperative when we went to see their children. But this mother was different. She said that her child is a gifted child. He is very lovable. She said that she will take care of him as long as she can and provide him with the best she could.