Increasing population age = more joint replacements

There's another thing that I should have mentioned in my previous post. According to WebMD, hip replacements are expected to rise 174% in the next 20 years, and knee replacements are expected to rise by as much as 673%. That is an astronomical increase in joint replacement surgeries! This relates back to my previous post, when I talked about the increasingly active lifestyle that today's older generations are living. The knee replacement rates are particularly indicative of this. A total knee replacement is frequently performed on an individual who has been active for a lifetime, and consequently has done damage to the knees. This is unavoidable for many active people. Eventually joints wear out, but luckily we have great replacement technology. Total knee replacements can be expected to last for upwards of twenty years without any significant degradation. Of course, it is always possible for an extremely active and young individual who gets a knee replacement to have a revision later without much hassle.

Changing Population Demographics

One of the most interesting pressures that physicians face today is the issue of an aging population. I decided to look into this phenomenon and I found an interesting site called longevity-science.org that talked about this very issue. According to some scholarly predictions, the world's elderly population is expected to rise from 6.9% of the total population today up to 19% by 2050. That is a striking increase, and one that will surely be felt by the medical profession. Orthopedic surgeons will be seeing more joint replacement patients in the years to come since there will be a greater number of elderly individuals leading increasingly active lifestyles. It almost seems improper to refer to today's elderly population as "elderly," considering how physically capable and full of life many of them are. I think it will be great to watch the progression that will take place in the next fifty years. Eventually it will be commonplace to run into centegenarians jogging in the park or lifting weights in the gym. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to be one of them.