Dr. Charles Wilson from The Orthopaedic Group, which has offices in Foley, said a large increase in the amount of total joint replacement surgeries is on the horizon, and there are more and more patients at a younger age receiving the surgery to relieve them from the pain associated with arthritis.

“You would like this to be their final procedure, so you like to wait until they are a little bit older, but unfortunately there are patients who get arthritis at a young age,” Wilson said, adding that by 2030 total knee replacement surgeries are projected to increase by 673 percent.

Total joint replacement is a type of joint surgery where the damaged joint is removed and replaced with an implant. The surgery is usually done for patients with arthritis pain. Arthritis is the wear and tear on cartilage and the effect on a joint that causes swelling, pain and limited movement.

In arthritis terms, the “younger” age bracket refers to patients in the 40-year-old to 65-year-old group, Wilson said, and the 45-to-54-year-old age bracket is the fastest rising age group to have the surgery.

Wilson said there are more than 700,000 total joint replacement surgeries performed annually, and over the next 10 years that number is expected to double. He credits the increase to one thing.

“It’s due to the aging population,” Wilson said.

Wilson said he tries to hold off on total joint replacement surgery until later in life while trying to find every possible avenue to decrease the amount of hip and knee joint pain in a patient.

“There are certain cartilage-preserving procedures for the younger population; but for the aging population, when you have arthritis, we proceed with a total joint replacement. We like to do it in folks who are over 65 years old, but this procedure is certainly being done in the younger population.”

However, sometimes the surgery is the best option.

“They have debilitating pain, and they can’t function,” he said. “It’s one of those things you want to put off as long as possible but there’s the argument that these are the productive years in their life. It’s a quality of life issue…In the right patient, I would (have the surgery for a patient at) 40 years old. Obviously there are those who have it much younger. A lot of people do things differently. Certainly I would discourage anyone who is less than 40 years old to have a total joint replacement, but it’s not unheard of.”

Wilson said one reason for holding off is the limited amount of life a replacement joint has.

“Due to the younger population getting the knee replacement and because the procedure has been performed for so long now we’re getting a higher number of revisions as well,” he said. “A revision knee replacement is when a total knee replacement has failed. It’s commonly caused by loosening, instability, and infection.”

He said the replacement joint survives for 20 years around 90 percent of the time, which means a patient receiving the surgery at the age of 40 years old could have problems by the time he is 60 years old. The life of a replaced joint could also be reduced due to increased activity level of the younger patient.

“The younger patient will put more stress on the joint, be more active and wear that joint out faster than an elderly patient,” Wilson said.