Total Hip Replacement

Hip replacement is, for most people, the most reliably transformative operation in orthopaedics — and it travels well. It is planned, the pathway is predictable, and recovery is quick enough that a two-week trip is realistic. Patients are often surprised by how much better they feel in the first few days compared with knee replacement, where progress is slower and harder won.

What the operation involves

In general terms, total hip replacement removes the damaged ball and socket of the hip joint and replaces them with an artificial ball, stem and socket. It is usually recommended for arthritis, or for damage following a fracture, where pain limits walking and sleep and other measures have not helped.

Surgeons use different approaches to reach the joint — posterior, anterior and lateral — and each has trade-offs in recovery and dislocation risk. Implant materials and fixation, whether cemented or uncemented, vary with your age and bone quality. These are clinical decisions rather than options to shop for, and the useful question is not which approach is best in general but why your surgeon prefers theirs for you.

Why the trip takes as long as it does

The indicative range is around twelve to sixteen days.

Before surgery — two to three days. Fresh X-rays, blood work, an anaesthetic review and a physiotherapy assessment. Dental or skin infection needs clearing first, because implant infection is the complication everyone works hardest to avoid.

Hospital stay — three to five days. You will usually be helped to stand and walk within a day. Early mobilisation is part of the treatment, not the hospital hurrying you along.

After discharge — around a week. Supervised physiotherapy, wound review, and being taught the movement precautions that apply to your particular approach. Your surgeon reviews you and clears you to fly.

Hip patients often feel ready to travel sooner than the schedule allows. The constraint is clot risk on a long flight and wound healing, not how well you feel, so resist the urge to book an early return.

What the written estimate covers

You receive an estimate naming the hospital, the consultant orthopaedic surgeon and their medical council registration number, the procedure, the implant, an all-inclusive cost range from the hospital and the days to plan for. It normally covers surgery, the implant, theatre, the ward stay, standard investigations and inpatient physiotherapy. Flights and the visa fee are not included.

As with knees, check whether physiotherapy after discharge is inside the figure or outside it. That single line is where hip quotes most often differ, and it makes comparing two estimates misleading if you do not check.

If something goes wrong

Most hip replacements are uneventful. The complications that matter for someone who has travelled are implant infection, dislocation in the early weeks, and clots — and all three typically appear after you have flown home.

Ask the hospital what happens if you develop signs of infection once you are back, whether they will review images and correspond with your own doctor, and what revision surgery would involve if it were ever needed. Get it in writing.

Our role: we are a facilitator. We match you to a hospital, arrange the trip and stay contactable. We provide no medical care and carry no clinical responsibility for it — your contract for treatment is with the hospital and any clinical claim lies against them under Indian law. Travel insurance rarely covers planned surgery abroad unless declared in advance.

Movement precautions and the first six weeks

Depending on the surgical approach, you may be given specific movement restrictions for the first several weeks — commonly limits on bending the hip past a certain angle, crossing your legs, or twisting on the operated side. These are not general advice; they are specific to how your surgeon reached the joint, and they matter because early dislocation is largely preventable.

Ask for them in writing before you leave, and plan your home around them. A raised toilet seat, a chair high enough to stand from easily, and removing loose rugs do more for your first month than almost anything else. Sort those before you travel rather than after you land back.

Questions worth asking the surgeon

• Which approach are you using, and what precautions follow from it?
• Cemented or uncemented, and why for my bone quality?
• How much physiotherapy is included, and for how long after discharge?
• When can I expect to walk unaided, drive, and return to work?
• What are the warning signs of dislocation or infection?
• Who do I contact from abroad if I am worried?

Recovery and going home

You leave with a discharge summary, operative notes including implant details, imaging, prescriptions, your movement precautions and a physiotherapy programme. Keep the implant record — you will need it for airport security and any future care involving that hip.

Improvement continues for months. Arrange a local physiotherapist before you travel rather than after you return, and we will make sure your discharge documents give them what they need to carry on properly.