This week I was back in the world of Rheumatology. The theme for the week was joint replacements. I saw quite a few people who were in need of at least one (sometimes more) join replacements. One case in particular was interesting to me because this was a case that was unrelated to osteoarthritis. There was a 40-50 year old woman who suffered from lupus who had been on high-dose steroids for years. Because of this, she was plagued with osteonecrosis, and the ball of her hip joint was essentially caving in. Instead of having a circle in a curve fit, it was now more like a hexagon in a curve. As you can imagine, that is not a pain free injury. However, Dr. Lockshin advised her to wait as long as possible to do the surgery. He said that he recommended she wait until she could no longer take the pain. Most likely, this was because implants only last 20-30 years max and she is a relatively young patient.
I am looking forward to next week because I will be rounding in the NICU.
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