Hip Surgery

If you are having a hip replacement procedure, both Drs. Bargar and Blumenfeld feel that general anesthesia is mandatory. This is because you are in a rather confined position during the procedure when you are turned on your side, and it is difficult to maintain adequate ventilation using spinal anesthesia alone. Many other surgeons do perform hip replacement using spinal anesthesia alone, but there is an increased risk of ventilation problems that can be life threatening. Consequently, Drs. Bargar and Blumenfeld strongly recommend the use of general anesthesia for both primary and revision hip surgery. In order to obtain the benefits of spinal anesthesia, it is recommended that hip surgery patients have a combined anesthetic approach as described above. If for some reason the patient does not desire spinal anesthesia, then the hip surgery can be performed with general anesthesia alone.