Total joint replacements rising: Alaskans get new hips and knees.

• Author: McKee, K.T.
• Position: HEALTH & MEDICINE

In the last 10 years, total knee and hip replacement surgeries have more than doubled in this country, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Out of a total 48 million surgical procedures performed in the United States in 2009, 676,000 were total knee replacements; 327,000 were total hip replacements, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although no statistics are available for Alaska, the CDC reports that nationally the rates per 10,000 people are 19.2 in those aged 45 to 64 and 40.0 for those aged 65 and over for total knee replacements; and for total hip replacements, 38.2 for those aged 45-64 and 91.9 for those aged 65 and over. While rates are very close between genders for total hip replacements, considerably more women than men undergo total knee replacements, according to the CDC. What's more, people are having the procedures done earlier in life.

"Thirty years ago, it was pretty much dogma that unless you were at least 55 you wouldn't even be considered for total joint replacement," says Orthopedic Surgeon John Lapkass of the Anchorage Fracture and Orthopedic Clinic. "The thought of doing surgery on someone in their mid-40s was almost heresy. But over the years, with the advances in materials that allow the new joints to last a lot longer and with younger folks demanding more from their bodies, the demographics are definitely changing."

Alaskans in particular seem to push themselves physically more than others from their teen years to their retirement years and, eventually, parts begin to wear down, Lapkass says.

Take Anchorage school nurse Judy Besh, for example. Back in 1977, Besh won the Mount Marathon race and was an All-American cross-country skier for the University of Alaska in 1979.

"I'd always been very active," 55-year-old Besh said in early May as she recovered from total hip replacement surgery. "Two years ago, it felt like I had a strain in my left groin muscle. It was very debilitating. I couldn't do much at all. It was hard to walk, but still I didn't think it was that serious."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Even when her long-time doctor did an MRI and told her it was her hip she still didn't want to believe it.

"I was doing anything I could to avoid surgery," she said. "But when your hip bothers you, it throws your walking off and creates all kinds of other problems."

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