Total hip replacement and leg length.

[33-weeker]

Do you ever have patients who's legs are uneven in length after a THR? Is it normal? Does it even out with time?

[NeoPediRN]

Yes, and after fx, sometimes it's permanent.

[ZippyGBR, BSN, RN]

it can be permanent, but a noticable difference could be indicative of poor surgical technique or the wrong choice of prosthesis

[33-weeker]

I think now that most of it was 'apparent' discrepancy, because it has gotten much better with PT and time. My mom waited until her hip was really bad before getting it done (a '11' on a scale of 10, the surgeon said). The surrounding muscles, etc., had shortened quite a bit. Problem was, she didn't realize the inner thigh pain she was feeling was her hip. She thought it had something to do with the arth. surgery she had done on her knee and just suffered with it until she couldn't stand it anymore. She's getting around without even a cane now.

Oh, get this... My dad fell a few weeks ago and refused to go get seen. He walked with mom's old walker for 5 days until she finally made him go get checked out. He had broken a hip, but somehow it had not displaced. They were able to put three screws in it. Stubborn old coot!