Persistent severe joint pain due to arthritis sometimes leads people to sign up for hip or knee replacement surgery. The thought here is that the “wear and tear” that years can put on the joints, together with inflammation, damages the cartilage and makes a brand-new joint more functional.
Joint Replacement Surgery:
A new twelve-year study of around 20,000 people who went through replacement surgery for joints affected by osteoarthritis has found that the chance of a heart attack is higher in the month following the surgery. Those who had a knee replacement had eight times the heart attack risk in that first post-surgical month, while for those whose hips were replaced the risk was four times higher.
The increased risk of a heart attack did not last much beyond the first month after the surgery, but a risk of blood clots lasted for several years after the surgery was done. These can also be extremely dangerous if they break loose and lodge in the lungs or the brain.
