Excerpt taken from Healthline.com.

New approach to common hip surgery allows patients to come in at 9 a.m. and leave the hospital at 5 p.m.

Replacing a hip used to be invasive and painful. It used to require cutting through muscles and tendons. It used to require days of pain and recovery in the hospital, physical therapy, and sometimes a stay in a rehabilitation center.

Not anymore.

Now you can have a hip replaced and be back home the same day. The surgery can also be done in a way that reduces pain. Healing time is quicker, and there is a faster return to normal strength and mobility.

Dr. Roy I. Davidovitch, one of the pioneers of same-day hip replacement surgery, and the first surgeon to do the procedure in New York, has performed more than 100 such operations.

Davidovitch, an orthopedic trauma surgeon with NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, and director of its Hip Center, uses the minimally invasive anterior approach for total hip replacement.

The goal of hip replacement is to restore range of motion and to help relieve arthritic pain.

The major advantage for patients of same-day replacement is their ability to recover comfortably at home. That allows them to avoid a hospital stay and to take control of their recovery, Davidovitch said.

“My goal is to get patients on the road to rapid recovery,” Davidovitch said in a Healthline interview, “and get them to return to work and their everyday level of function as soon as possible — and forget about their hip replacement.”

“The hip replacement itself takes about an hour, depending on the complexity of the case,” Davidovitch said. “For a same-day replacement, a patient can come in at 9 a.m., be up walking with the physical and occupational therapists by 2 or 3 p.m., and leave by 5 or 6.”

To learn more about same day hip replacements, click here.