Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 40 What does joint replacement surgery mean for patients? The people I take care of have given up parts of their lives piece by piece until they can't work or even tie their shoes. Bone is grinding on bone. After just a few hours of surgery, their life completely changes. My first patient at Benefis was Doug Miller, who drives a school bus. After his hip replacement, he yelled out in the waiting area, "Dr. Bullard is a miracle worker!" His hip replacement took his pain away and will keep him doing what he wants to do. I see a lot of societal benefit as well. Three of my own children use the bus system, so I appreciate how important people like Doug are. We need to keep people working, finding meaning in their lives, and contributing to their families and communities. In addition, think of what it means for those kids first thing in the morning to have a happy bus driver! Have you seen a need in northcentral Montana for joint revision? I'm seeing people who haven't pursued care because of the complex logistics and expense of going far away for treatment. Many patients don't recognize persistent pain as being abnormal after their joint replacement, so they've just been "dealing with it." Having revision surgery as an option in their own backyard means it's much easier to get care and improve the quality of their lives. How is a joint revision different than a joint replacement? Revision is replacing an artificial joint that has failed due to wear, instability, infection, or trauma. When the conservative options to extend the life of the joint have failed, we can do a revision. It's a more complex surgery. Sometimes we are working with ligaments that won't hold the knee or significant bone loss. People nowadays live longer, so there's more time to break a femur above an artificial knee, for example. What does the recovery time look like? As with all medicine, much of recovery is patient specific. Hip replacement is typically easier to recover from than knee replacement. Revision surgery is typically a longer recovery as well. Physical therapy is a crucial element of rehabilitation following knee replacement and may be necessary following hip replacement. In general, my goal is for patients to participate in activities with minimal assistance at two to four weeks following surgery. Do you treat younger patients as well? The youngest total joint replacement I've done was for a patient in their 20s with avascular necrosis, which is when the bone dies because it's not getting blood and the joint deteriorates. Total Joint Revision Comes to Great Falls Dr. Jace Bullard is a fellowship-trained hip and knee replacement orthopedic surgeon at Benefis Health System who uses the most current techniques and minimally invasive approaches. He also performs revision surgeries on replacements that have failed, giving patients relief from pain caused by their replacements wearing out, infections, trauma, or unresolved issues from their original surgeries. Jace Bullard, MD Orthopedic Surgery

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