AMITA Health offers state-of-the-art joint replacement
Joint replacement procedures count over 100 years of operative history and we've come a very long way from 1822 London when the first excision joint arthroplasty was performed. Just consider what AMITA Health's state-of-the-art Center for Advanced Joint Replacement in Hoffman Estates offers in terms of extraordinary technology including the Stryker MAKO robotic arm for joint replacement surgery.
AMITA Health St. Alexius Medical Center dedicated the entire second floor and $20 million for the brand new facility that offers everything a joint replacement patient needs in one convenient location: pre-op holding, surgery, recovery, patient rooms, therapy, a car simulator, kitchen simulator, a simulated bathroom environment, and even stairs that go nowhere. Patients can simulate their home environment before they leave the hospital to make sure that they will be safe at home.
The Center for Advanced Joint Replacement is completely dedicated to their patients. "The OR, recovery room and floor nursing staff will only be caring for joint replacement patients," explained Medical Director Paul Nourbash, MD. "At other hospitals, healthy joint replacement patients coming in for elective surgery are often mixed with general hospital patients who are frequently ill."
Who is a good candidate for joint replacement? According to Dr. Nourbash, if you have disabling hip, knee or shoulder pain that restricts movement, adversely affects your quality of life, and disturbs your sleep - you are a good candidate especially if conservative care like weight loss, exercise and medications failed to relieve your pain.
Delaying joint replacement is inadvisable for a number of reasons. "The patient can become deconditioned and suffer other medical conditions like heart attack or stroke if they are not active," Dr. Nourbash warned. "The joint can become stiff and deformed, complicating the surgical reconstruction. Some patients delay surgery too long only to develop an unrelated medical condition that makes them no longer a surgical candidate. I have had many patients who delayed having surgery only to have a heart attack and be told they can no longer have joint replacement surgery, or they have to wait more than a year before the cardiologist will clear them for surgery."
Dr. Nourbash, who trained at Northwestern, University of Illinois and Indiana University, undertook his joint replacement fellowship training at Rush. His vast experience is not uncommon at the Center for Advanced Joint Replacement. "Many of our surgeons have spent an extra year beyond residency training to be a specialist in joint replacement surgery," he explained, "and our team of physicians also helped develop the care protocols involving the latest information to optimize patient care." The innovative center includes operating rooms designed using virtual reality equipment and a team of dedicated orthopedic surgeons who have worked with the hospital over two years to create and help manage it.
"I use the knowledge, skills and 22 years of experience to give my patients the best possible care that I can give them," he said.
AMITA Heath St. Alexius Medical Center has excellent, highly skilled, joint replacement surgeons and a state-of-the-art center in the suburbs so patients need not travel into the city to have the best possible care for their joint replacement experience. Learn more about the Center for Advanced Joint Replacement Surgery at AMITA Health St. Alexius Medical Center by calling (833) NU-JOINT or visit www.amitahealth.org/joint.