The Mercury reports on the findings of an HSS study led by hip and knee surgeon, Peter K. Sculco, MD, and published in ScienceDaily, which demonstrated low-risk hip replacement, using the posterior approach, can skip the standard hip precautions currently recommended for post-surgical recovery.

For a posterior approach, standard precautions include not flexing your hip past 90 degrees, not internally rotating your hip more than 10 degrees, using an elevated seat cushion at all times and a grabber for anything that is on the ground and sleeping on your back for six weeks.

“The bottom line of the study is in recent years, we have learned more about interventions that matter after joint replacement and those that really don’t have efficacy," explained Dr. Sculco. "In most patients, we got rid of powerful anticoagulants, for example, and we are moving toward a shorter stay and even outpatient arthroplasty (i.e., joint surgery) for total hip replacement," he noted. 

“Minimizing precautions and simplifying the post-operative recovery is part of the larger simplification of surgery where we are using more selected resources and interventions for people, instead of blanketing everyone with the same kind of protocols,” added Dr. Sculco. 

This article originally appeared on Potssmerc.com.