What is Joint Preservation?

Your hip and knee joints undergo heavy use throughout your life and play and key role in your movement. If these joints become injured or worn over time, you are more likely to notice symptoms. Even if an injury is minor, it can lead to a premature loss of cartilage in the joint as you age.

Hip and knee joint replacement are among the most common medical procedures performed in the United States today. The two most common groups of people who undergo surgery for hip and knee conditions are elderly adults with end-stage arthritis that requires joint replacement, and young athletes with a ligament or cartilage injury.

Alternative to joint replacement

Patients between the ages of 25 and 45 may have slowly degenerating joints, and they may not get the medical care they need to preserve their joints. When these patients do seek care, they may end up getting total joint replacement sooner in life than desired.

That’s why Northwestern Medicine Orthopaedics has established the Northwestern Medicine Hip and Knee Joint Preservation Center. Our multidisciplinary team of specialists offers joint preservation techniques that can help keep adults and adolescents with pre-arthritic conditions as functionally normal as possible.