antibiotic spacer and slide board

[jhagstrom]

My mother had a partial hip replacement. Then her prothesis dislocated, and her femur broke in several places, and her hip was also infected. She is 75 yrs old and weighs around 250 lbs.

She now has a cement bone hip spacer with anitibiotics. Her femur has several "tie wraps" on it, wiring it together.

The hip spacer in her is in two pieces. There is a spacer in shaped like the ball and is in the hip socket. The femur apprears to have something like another ball on it and is not positioned near the hip socket. On the x-ray it appears to "float" next to the socket.

She is in a nursing home and they are using a hoyer lift to get her from bed to chair and back. They are working on getting her to stand up using her good leg only. She is to bear no weight on the leg with the spacer per the surgeon.

PT wants her to use a slide board to transfer but the surgeon told us this should not be used. PT was very surprised to here this.

Does anyone know about spacers and slide board use?

Thanks-

Jennifer

 

[Texas]

My goodness Jennifer. I am so sorry for all you guys are going thru. Thats sad. Im a knee, just wanted to say hi and welcome and I hope that they get all this fix. That broke my heart reading it. Im sure some hippies will post soon and try to help. Hang in there and this will get straight soon. For everyones sake. I know you must worry about her. Good luck . Hope she gets better soon......

 

[Jamie]

Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the forum.

Your question is very specific and rather unique. I believe our forum nurse, Josephine, will be the best person to provide comments. I know things like this are difficult for both you and your mother to go through. I'm so sorry to hear it happened to her.

We do have a wonderful group of caring folks here and please feel free to post whenever you want some support or just to chat. There will always be someone here for you!

 

[tahoe1009]

Wow that really sounds like no fun. I'm really sorry. I don't have any experience with your issues, but I wanted to let you know you're not alone. Also, wanted to get your post further up the list so you could get some feedback other than,"we're here for you.". Unfortunatly that is all I can offer. I hope you get some good feed back from someone with the medical training or experience.

 

[Texas]

Coppernob, read her post she is going thru that now actually. I think shes going back Monday to get the TKR fixed. The spacer the whole thing. The infections is gone but she has info on her thread...I for got till she posted the other day

 

[Josephine]

My mother had a partial hip replacement.

Do you mean that she had a fractured hip? Otherwise called a fractured neck of femur? It would fit with her age somewhat.

Then her prothesis dislocated, and her femur broke in several places, and her hip was also infected. She is 75 yrs old and weighs around 250 lbs.

Did she fall again or was the breakages from the original fall? That's some damage to be sustained otherwise.

She now has a cement bone hip spacer with anitibiotics. Her femur has several "tie wraps" on it, wiring it together.

That's the routine treatment for this situation. Infection plus fracture is not and easy thing to deal with. So they would use plastic straps similar to the plastic ties electricians use around bundles of wires, to hold the fractured areas together.

The hip spacer in her is in two pieces. There is a spacer in shaped like the ball and is in the hip socket. The femur apprears to have something like another ball on it and is not positioned near the hip socket. On the x-ray it appears to "float" next to the socket.

They need to deal with the infection and in order to do this, they have to bombard the area inside with intensive antibiotics but at the same time, they need to make sure the ligaments and muscles don't contract and make it impossible to insert a new hip when the time comes. So they use these specially formed items of bone cement impregnated with an antibiotic called Gentamycin. They are not comfortable things to endure and your mother will be experiencing a lot of pain in this phase of her treatment. Make sure the nurses are not under the impression that because she is XYZ weeks past the last op that she "shouldn't" need them any more. Do your best to make sure the nurses are giving her adequate pain meds Iall the time as she will need them throughout this period which will last until the bacteria count in her blood is almost zero. Only then will it be safe for them to go in and give her a new hip joint.

She is in a nursing home and they are using a hoyer lift to get her from bed to chair and back. They are working on getting her to stand up using her good leg only. She is to bear no weight on the leg with the spacer per the surgeon.

PT wants her to use a slide board to transfer but the surgeon told us this should not be used. PT was very surprised to here this.

I can't help much about the use of slides and have no idea why the surgeon should prohibit its use. I suggest you phone him and ask to have it explained to you. Not weight bearing on the bad hip is not about the spacer but because it will hamper the bone healing where the straps are.

 

[Snookkatcher]

Wow Jennifer....so sorry to hear of your Mom's problems! I can't add much as far as info or answers, but as previously said, support, strength, and someone to 'talk' to can ALWAYS be found here. Welcome!
You both are in my Prayers! :pray: Lee