How Old Is too Old for Joint Replacement?

Is one ever too old to get a new knee? Ali Saleh Hussein, whose passport shows that his age is 98, underwent joint replacement surgery on his left knee at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai in December. His orthopedic surgeon, Amyn Rajani, said, “Hussein’s knees are those of a 60-year-old man. While the left one was severely degenerated due to arthritis, his right knee is good for another couple of years.” Rajani believes Hussein to be the oldest man in the world to have undergone knee replacement surgery

The oldest individual to have undergone knee replacement surgery in both of his knees is also from India. He is believed to be 94-year-old S.N. Bhatt from Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai steel township.

According to the Times of India, Kaushal Malhan, M.D. performed joint replacement surgery on both knees of 91-year-old Madhukar Nimdeo. He said that there are many 70-year olds whose joints seem too far gone for them to benefit from replacement surgery. “But there are some like Nimdeo who even at 90 years of age are active enough to benefit from the surgery.”

The Times writer quoted Pradeep Bhonsale, M.D., who heads KEM Hospital’s orthopedic department, expressing a different opinion: “Arthritis is never an emergency like, say, fracture. Moreover, why should a 90-plus patient be put through the risk of a supra-specialty surgery when new medicines and injections can help them equally, ” he said.