"I tell the patients that they're usually 85 to 90% recovered at six weeks." Doctor Thomas P. Sculco, Surgeon-in-Chief at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, speaks about the recovery timetable for most patients. Doctor Sculco also notes how patients usually have a nearly complete recovery.

Dr. Sculco



I tell the patients that they're usually 85 to 90% recovered at six weeks.



The patients always ask, "when can I return to activities, when I go back to doing what I want to do and what are my limitations." Once you've had you're hip replaced, there are not a lot of limitations. We want people to be active. The reason we do this operation is to restore their mobility. And relieve their pain. So I encourage my patients to be active. That means once the patients go back if they want to play sports... other patients ski, hike, golf. Tennis, preferably doubles. So they get back to do most things they want to do. Patients would leave here in a cane, they're usually walking well in the house within a couple of weeks. And most patients are off the cane completely within 4-6 week. So recovery tends to be very quick, actually. What I tell the patients that they're usually 85 to 90% recovered at six weeks. And that last 10 of 15% usually takes another six weeks. So before you're absolutely as good as you're going to be with a hip replacement... it's probably 2-3 months.