There are about 790,000 total knee replacements and 544,000 hip replacements done every year in the U.S.—and those numbers are expected to grow as the population ages, according to the American College of Rheumatology.
Intended to help relieve pain and improve function, knee and hip replacements are considered two of the most successful medical interventions of all time, says Dr. James Huddleston, an orthopedic surgeon at Stanford Medicine. He is also the president of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons and the chair of the American Joint Replacement Registry Steering Committee.
