Hip & Knee Replacement Guides

Hip Replacement Cost in California: What Insurance Covers Updated June 2026. Your hip has reached the point where the conversation has turned to surgery. Maybe it’s bone-on-bone arthritis on the X-ray; maybe it’s the groin pain that now wakes you at night. Whatever brought you here, the next question I hear in […]

Does Medicare Cover Knee & Hip Replacement? A California Guide Published June 2026. Yes — Medicare covers total knee and total hip replacement when the surgery is medically necessary, which in practice means documented arthritis that has stopped responding to non-surgical care. What you actually pay depends mostly on whether your operation […]

Signs of a Failed Knee Replacement (and What to Do Next) Published 11 June 2026. Most knee replacements never fail: in national registry data, about 82% are still in place at 25 years [1]. But new pain after a long good stretch, swelling and warmth that will not settle, a knee that […]

Loose Hip Replacement: Symptoms, Causes, and When It Needs Revision By Leo Zalikha, MD · 11 Jun 26 A loose hip replacement means the implant has lost its solid grip on the surrounding bone, and the usual first clue is “start-up” pain — a deep ache in the groin or thigh when […]

Knee Still Hurts 1-2 Years After Replacement? What’s Normal and What’s Not Updated June 2026. Some stiffness, occasional swelling, clicking with bending, and a numb patch beside the scar are common a year or two after knee replacement — and usually harmless. Pain that limits what you can do, wakes you at […]

Anterior vs. Posterior Hip Replacement: An Honest Comparison Published June 2026. Both the direct anterior and posterior approaches are excellent, time-tested ways to perform the same total hip replacement, and pooled randomized trials show their results are statistically identical by three months after surgery [1]. The anterior approach can offer a gentler […]

Second Opinion Before (or After) Knee Replacement: When and How to Get One Published June 2026. If you have been told you need a knee replacement and something about it does not sit right — or you have already had one and the knee still is not right — a second opinion […]