Managing Pain - Surgical Guide to Left Posterior Total Hip Replacement Surgery

Some pain and discomfort after surgery is normal. We can offer many treatment options that greatly reduce the pain most patients feel. Pain management begins with you.

How Does It Feel?

The best way you can help is to describe your pain, showing its location and describing its intensity, as well as reporting any changes. Pain may be constant, or it may come and go. It can be sharp, burning, tingling, or aching. A pain scale is used to help you and our staff gauge the level of pain and effectiveness of treatment. Your description will help us provide you with a plan of care.

You will be asked to rate how much pain you have on a pain scale of 1 to 10, and what your tolerable level of pain is.

Your Personalized Treatment Plan

The pain management team will use many different techniques to manage your pain. This may include nerve blocks, oral medications, injections, IV medications and catheters connected to special pumps. We try to avoid giving injections but sometimes these are necessary. We aim to recognize and treat pain quickly to allow you to fully take part in your physical therapy program. The goal is to transition to pain medications that you take by mouth. Usually these are opioids or narcotics. If appropriate, you will be placed on Tylenol, an anti-inflammatory, and an opioid pain medication.

We will teach you how to safely take your medications and give you more information before discharge. Take your pain medication as prescribed.

It is normal to have pain after surgery. It can often increase after discharge when the anesthesia nerve blocks wear off. Unless otherwise instructed, take your opioid pain medication as needed when you start to feel pain.

Narcotic medication may have side effects including nausea, vomiting, light-headedness, and constipation.

As you heal, the pain should gradually lessen. You can expect to use less pain medication after the first week or so following your surgery. There are also alternative methods to control pain without medication. These include:

• icing
• guided imagery
• relaxation techniques
• deep breathing exercises

Some patients may require limited refills of pain medication. Call your surgeon’s office to make this request or if you are having any other difficulty with pain control. More information will be provided before your discharge from the Hospital.

Safe Medication Disposal

Many patients do not use all of the pain medication prescribed to them after surgery. Once your pain has subsided, it is important to properly dispose of any leftover medications right away. Here are ways to safely dispose of your leftover medications: Use DisposeRx®: This is a safe disposal product provided by HSS. Follow the instructions to dispose of medications at home.

Drop-Off Locations

HSS Drop Box: Bring unused medications to the prescription medication drop box at HSS, located on the ground floor of the Belaire Building at 525 E 71st Street.

Other Locations: You can find other public drop-off sites near you by visiting https://apps.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/pubdispsearch