Quote:
Originally Posted by cube_rat
Wow, the SF Bay Area lost a great anchorman. He was one of the few staple newscasters around here. He just went in for a second hip replacement and died a day later. Not from anesthesia, but a massive heart attack.
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Cube, total hip replacement has a mortality rate of about 0.7%, plus a rate of serious complications like pulmonary embolism and blood clots of .1 to 3%.
A fatal heart attack after surgery is pretty rare if appropriate pre-op risk stratification is done, but sometimes it just happens. These are usually considered separate from blood clots which in this context occur in the lungs and legs mostly.
So, yes it's a safe procedure considering that severe arthritis of the hip can be terribly painful and debilitating. But "safe" wasn't enough for your anchor man.
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