Hip Replacement Surgery Linked to Greater Risk of Stroke During First Few Weeks After Procedure

Researchers in the Netherlands have warned that people who undergo total hip replacement surgery have a greater risk of suffering from a stroke in the first few weeks after the operation. The researchers arrived at the conclusion following a large scale study involving more than 266,000 people in Denmark with an average age of 72 years and of which 66,000 had undergone total hip replacement surgery.

The researchers found that those who had the procedure were 4.4 times more likely to suffer from hemorrhagic stroke, bleeding in the brain, and 4.7 times more likely to suffer from ischemic stroke, caused by lack of blood flow to the brain, in the first two weeks after the surgery. The study has been published in the journal Stroke.

“There is an increasing tendency to decrease the length of hospital stay because of improved therapy and because of strategies to reduce costs and mobilize patients as soon as possible. It makes sense to evaluate the risk of stroke two weeks after surgery”, lead researcher Frank de Vries said.

Source-Medindia