What recovery usually looks like
Typical ranges from AAOS OrthoInfo, NIH MedlinePlus and two systematic reviews: walking aids, help at home, driving, work, and when most of the improvement happens. They are ranges, not promises. Your surgeon decides your own timeline.
- Sudden shortness of breath
- Sudden chest pain, or chest pain in one spot with coughing
AAOS lists these as the warning signs that a blood clot has travelled to the lung (pulmonary embolism). MedlinePlus: “Go to the emergency room or call 911 or the local emergency number, if you have symptoms of a pulmonary embolus.”
If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988.
Signs of a blood clot in the leg, or an infection.
- Pain in your calf or leg that is not from the incision
- Tenderness or redness of the calf
- New or increasing swelling of the thigh, calf, ankle or foot
AAOS: blood clots in the leg veins are “one of the most common complications” of knee and hip replacement.
- A temperature higher than 101°F (38.3°C), or the number your team gives you
- Chills
- Increasing redness, tenderness or swelling of the wound
- Drainage from the wound
- Increasing pain both at rest and with activity
AAOS warning signs of infection; the temperature is MedlinePlus’s.
- Blood soaking through the dressing that does not stop with pressure
- Pain that does not go away after your pain medicine
- A foot or toes darker than normal, or cool to touch
- After a hip replacement: a fall or a hurt to that leg, or a hip that feels slipped or out of position
MedlinePlus knee and hip discharge pages.
Write the office and after-hours numbers here before you go home: ______________________
How to lie, sit and move around.
Check your home against this list, or ask the person helping you to. Each line says who published it. If your surgeon or physical therapist told you something different, follow them.
Knee or hip
- A chair with a firm back in each room you use. MedlinePlus 000170 · 000169
- Get up and move around after 45 minutes of sitting. MedlinePlus 000170 · 000169
- A bed low enough that your feet touch the floor when you sit on its edge. MedlinePlus 000170 · 000169
- A bed and a bathroom (or a portable commode) on the floor where you spend the day, so you do not need the stairs. MedlinePlus 000170 · 000169
- Throw rugs and loose cords gone from where you walk, good lighting, a slip-proof mat in the shower, and hand rails in the shower and next to the toilet. MedlinePlus 000170
After a knee replacement
- In bed, the pillow goes under your heel or ankle, not under your knee. Keep the knee straight. MedlinePlus 000170
- With the walker, do not twist or turn on the spot, and do not carry things while you walk: your hands are for balance. MedlinePlus 000170
- Do not carry anything heavier than 5 to 10 pounds (2.25 to 4.5 kg). MedlinePlus 000170
- Put weight on the leg only when your surgeon or physical therapist says it is safe. MedlinePlus 000170
After a hip replacement
- No low chairs or soft sofas. MedlinePlus 000169
- A bed high enough that your hips are higher than your knees when you sit on its edge, with a firm mattress. MedlinePlus 000169
- Do not lie with your full weight on the side of the new hip until your surgeon says it is OK. MedlinePlus 000169
- Do not squat down to clean. MedlinePlus 000169
- Your team teaches you the hip precautions for your surgery, the positions that protect the new hip, usually for the first 6 weeks. Write them here: MedlinePlus 000169 · AAOS
Not able to get in and out of bed or a chair by yourself, or to use the toilet without much help? MedlinePlus says you should be able to do these at home; tell your surgeon’s office or physical therapist.
Knee and hip, side by side.
Each line says who published it. Where a source gives no number, this page says so instead of guessing.
| Knee replacement | Hip replacement | |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital stay | Usually 1 to 3 days; home the same day if done as an outpatient. AAOS | Usually 1 to 2 days; home the same day if done as an outpatient. AAOS |
| Walker or crutches | You may need them for up to 3 months. MedlinePlus 000170 | Most people do not need them after 2 to 4 weeks. Full weight on the leg may be allowed at once or delayed by several weeks. MedlinePlus 000169 · AAOS |
| Help at home | Several days to several weeks. AAOS | Someone with you for 1 to 2 weeks. MedlinePlus 000169 |
| Stitches or staples out | About 10 to 14 days. MedlinePlus 000170 | About 2 weeks. AAOS |
| Most daily activities | Within 3 to 6 weeks. AAOS | Most light daily activities within 3 to 6 weeks. AAOS |
| Driving | Most people about 4 to 6 weeks: when the knee bends enough to sit in the car and you can brake in time. AAOS | AAOS publishes no number of weeks: when you no longer take opioid pain medicine and your strength and reflexes are back. AAOS |
| Back to work | Several days to several weeks, depending on the job. AAOS | Several weeks to several months, depending on the job. AAOS |
| Special precautions | No kneeling to pick things up, no ladders or step stools, no twisting on the walker. MedlinePlus 000170 | Usually for the first 6 weeks; most people can drop the “don’ts” after 6 to 8 weeks. AAOS |
| Swelling | Mild to moderate for about 3 to 6 months. AAOS | Mild to moderate for 3 to 6 months. AAOS |
| Physical therapy exercises | Keep doing them for at least 2 months after surgery. AAOS | |
Your surgeon and physical therapist decide when you stop using a walker, crutches or a cane (MedlinePlus), and when it is safe to drive and to work (AAOS).
Months, not weeks, and longer for strength than for pain.
Thigh (quadriceps) strength drops most about 3 days after surgery, then comes back slowly. At 3 months it was still significantly lower than before surgery, and it had not fully recovered by 6 months.
Where it stops: strength only, not pain or daily function. PubMed 35692543
By 6 to 8 months after surgery, physical function had generally recovered to about 80% of that of healthy people, up from less than 50% before surgery (function as people rated it themselves).
Where it stops: few studies followed people past 8 months. PubMed 21393418
In these studies, strength and function kept coming back over months, not weeks. If you are not sure whether what you feel is expected, call the office; the reasons to call are listed above.
- AAOS OrthoInfo: Total Knee Replacement (daily activities 3 to 6 weeks, driving about 4 to 6 weeks, blood clot and infection signs).
- AAOS OrthoInfo: Total Hip Replacement (light daily activities 3 to 6 weeks, stitches about 2 weeks, precautions usually 6 weeks, warning signs).
- AAOS OrthoInfo: Activities After Knee Replacement (hospital stay, help at home, driving, work, swelling, exercises 2 months).
- AAOS OrthoInfo: Activities After Hip Replacement (hospital stay, weight bearing, driving, work, swelling, precautions 6 to 8 weeks).
- NIH MedlinePlus 000170: Knee joint replacement, discharge (walking aids up to 3 months, stitches 10 to 14 days, when to call, 101°F).
- NIH MedlinePlus 000169: Hip replacement, discharge (walking aids 2 to 4 weeks, help 1 to 2 weeks, when to call).
- NIH MedlinePlus 000132: Pulmonary embolus (call 911).
- NIH MedlinePlus 002974: Knee joint replacement (full recovery 4 months to a year).
- Paravlic AH, Meulenberg CJ, Drole K. The time course of quadriceps strength recovery after total knee arthroplasty. Front Med (Lausanne) 2022;9:865412. PubMed 35692543 · doi
- Vissers MM, et al. Recovery of physical functioning after total hip arthroplasty: systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature. Phys Ther 2011;91(5):615-29. PubMed 21393418 · doi
AAOS gives “persistent fever (higher than 100°F orally)” as an infection sign; MedlinePlus gives higher than 101°F (38.3°C) as a reason to call. This site uses the MedlinePlus number everywhere; your team’s number comes first. General education, not medical advice. Your clinician decides. Nothing on this page is sent anywhere.