Working with your Doctor

Before surgery, please discuss with your doctor any conditions that could interfere with the surgery or its outcome. Routine tests, such as blood tests and X-rays, are usually performed before the surgery.

Discuss any medications you are taking with your Orthopaedic surgeon and your family physician to see which ones you should stop taking before surgery.

Discuss with your doctor options for preparing for potential blood replacement, including donating your own blood, medical interventions and other treatments prior to surgery.

If you are overweight, losing weight before surgery will help decrease the stress you place on your new joint and make the anaesthetic safer.

If you are taking aspirin or anti-inflammatory medications, you will need to stop taking most of them ten days before surgery to minimize bleeding. Celebrex can be continued until the day prior to your surgery.

If you smoke, you should stop or cut down to reduce your anaesthetic and surgical risks. Smokers have higher complication rates including infection and delayed healing rates.

Please have any tooth, gum, bladder or bowel problems treated before surgery to reduce the risk of infection later.

Eat a well-balanced diet.

Report any infections to your surgeon. Elective surgery usually will not be performed until all infections have cleared up.