A very general guide for all joint replacement is:
- You will continue to improve for an entire year, even if you feel 100% within weeks after surgery.
The following is highly variable, and represents a reasonable baseline. The recovery can be longer depending on the severity of the disease. Most of my patients stop their pain medication on the following schedules:
- Total hips in 1-3 weeks
- Partial knees in 1-4 weeks
- Total knees in 2-10 weeks
- Revision hip or knee replacement, too variable to comment
I usually recommend that my patients take 2 months off of work for any joint replacement. That way, you can always go back to work sooner if you feel like it. Most of my patients return to work within a few weeks.
