Choices for hipsters

Several types of hip replacements are available, and hip resurfacing has made a comeback.

The total hip replacement has become one of the most common and most successful operations performed in the United States, and perhaps the world. Over 200,000 hip replacements are performed on Americans each year, a number that may almost triple over the next couple of decades as baby boomers get older and their hips creakier. With this popularity has come choice in everything from the type of incisions (minimally invasive vs. conventional) to the material used in the new hip (metal, polyethylene, ceramic) to how the parts of the new hip are attached to the leftover bone.