Hip Surgery Recovery Time for Elderly Parents
The Caring Generation®—Episode 248, July 1, 2026. Hip surgery recovery time for elderly parents goes beyond surgery. Family caregivers and older adults can learn critical information to speed recovery and prevent complications. Caregiving expert Pamela D Wilson shares what to do, ask, and prepare for before surgery and in the weeks after to help parents return to living independently.
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Hip Surgery Recovery Time for Elderly Parents
Hip surgery recovery time for elderly depends on various factors. Many of which are not discussed in detail, along with pre-and post-surgery aspects. Hip surgery can be planned or unplanned, such as due to an accident.
Hip surgery is typically a health issue for older adults. There are over 400,000 hip replacements annually in the U.S., with about 70-75 percent of these, 280-300,000, in persons over age 65.
Factors that impact hip surgery recovery time for elderly include:
- Defrailing, which is improving your all-around health, especially before planned surgery
- Pre-surgery risks
- Post-surgery risks
- Efforts to get back to normal
- Tasks that can be done to make returning home from the hospital or a rehab facility easier.
All of these are topics that the person undergoing hip surgery and their family caregivers should know. If patients don’t ask questions — physicians can’t read minds. Doctors can assume that surgical patients either already know this information or may not want to know it.
Make a list of questions before your doctor’s visit to make the most out of your appointment.
This episode of The Caring Generation podcast offers caregiving education and prompts you to consider questions to ask a parent’s physician or surgeon.
Risks of Hip Replacement Surgery in the Elderly
Doctors usually give a high-level description of the risks unless patients ask more specific questions before surgery. The time when surgical risks are mentioned is when the patient is in the hospital waiting room prior to surgery.
This is when patients are asked to sign the release form acknowledging that anything and everything can go wrong during surgery. That there no guarantees of physical improvement after hip surgery.
Research and practical experience confirm that surgery for a person with multiple health problems is riskier than surgery for a person without multiple health problems.
The recovery is different for persons who were physically independent and active before surgery versus those who use a walker, cane, or wheelchair and who are not physically active.
Caregivers and older adults can take proactive steps to manage hospital care.
Rarely Discussed Fall and Hip Fracture Factors
Physicians respond to patients’ health problems and urgent concerns, such as hip fractures. Neither the doctor nor the patient thoroughly investigates the cause of the fracture.
Most people say, “I tripped or turned and ended up on the floor. I got dizzy.” That’s the most obvious explanation. But what’s the not-so-obvious cause?
Identifying the not-so-obvious cause is a preventive measure against a future fall.
Learn about fall prevention and what older adults and caregivers need to know.
Contributors to falls and broken hips for the elderly include:
- Physical frailty or weakness
- Poor balance
- Hearing or visual deficits – you didn’t see the curb or that rock on the sidewalk, or you have an inner-ear balance issue
- Medications can increase the risk of falls for older adults
- A sudden infection, such as a urinary tract infection, pneumonia, dehydration, or sepsis
- Conditions related to heart disease, like orthostatic hypotension – meaning when you stand up, you become dizzy because of a change in blood pressure
Having a diagnosis of osteoporosis will not cause a fall. However, osteoporosis can increase the likelihood of a fracture in a person who falls.
Wilson’s online program, How to Prevent Falls, Injuries, and Weakness in the Elderly, offers practical tips for identifying fall risks and helping elderly parents continue living independently at home.
Alternatives to Hip Surgery
If your muscle strength or balance is poor, ask about physical therapy or exercises that can strengthen your body to reduce the risk of falls.
According to caregiving expert Pamela D Wilson, “medications for incontinence or pain increase fall risk. Medications to manage dementia behaviors increase the risk of falls. Older adults frequently experience serious falls when getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.”
Some older adults with multiple health conditions or those who are inactive are not candidates for hip surgery. The elderly who are wheelchair bound are denied surgery due to risks and a lack of physical activity required for surgery recovery. Braces or other stabilizing equipment can be prescribed by position to reduce fracture pain.
Elderly Surgery Risks
If you or an elderly parent has multiple health conditions, they can present a surgical risk and caregiving challenges. Hospitalizations can also be risky for elderly parents who may be weak or frail prior to a planned surgery or hospitalization.
Here are items typically mentioned:
- Blood clots
- Delirium
- Cardiac issues
- Loss of muscle mass
- Bed sores
- Pulmonary issues, including pneumonia
- Sepsis
Frailty and Defrailing
Frail elderly people more often require assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) and experience more negative health conditions.
While frailty is a risk, it’s also a preventative opportunity. Defrailing includes consideration of aerobic, balance, flexibility, and strength training; protein-specific nutrition; cognition; and any other adverse conditions affecting daily functioning. This means that discussing chronic diseases and weight, as well as evaluating bone density and bloodwork, are also important aspects.
DEXA scans, physician-ordered or individually initiated, offer information about bone mass, muscle mass, body fat content, and biological age. This information can be used to develop an individualized defrailing plan.
If you have planned surgery, committing to a defrailing play can help you recover more quickly.
Does Hip Surgery Cause Delirium in the Elderly?
Research confirms that delirium occurs in 28-50% of the elderly undergoing general surgery or hip fracture surgery. Chronic health conditions like urinary tract infections, pneumonia, dementia, and Alzheimer’s can also be associated with delirium. Learn more about delirium in this video from caregiving expert Pamela D Wilson.
For an older adult, recovering from delirium can take days, weeks, or months. Persons with dementia experiencing delirium may never return to a prior baseline level.
What Does it Take to Get Back to Normal After Hip Replacement Surgery?
Everyone is different. Recovery is directly correlated with how hard an individual is willing to work at both physical and mental recovery. Separate from the outcome of the surgery, recovery actions are up to the individual.
Recovery from hip replacement surgery in the elderly varies from person to person. According to Wilson, “When I managed care for clients or was the medical power of attorney, my clients experienced different recovery timelines due to the following:
- Pain levels
- Tiredness or exhaustion
- Effects of pain medications, including nausea or dizziness
- Lack of appetite
- Inability to sleep
- Increased mental confusion
- Lack of motivation to improve
- Disturbed sleep
Sleep and Recovery
A good night’s sleep is healing. But if you have hip surgery and you’re used to sleeping on your side or your stomach, you might struggle to sleep on your back.
Turning over and getting out of bed can be difficult due to movement inflexibility or pain. This might seem silly until you experience it– and it’s real.
Pain pills can mimic the effects of a hangover. Never mix pain pills and alcohol or any other type of substance, as the chances of another fall can increase.
Pain pills can also result in nausea. So there’s a fine line between managing pain and committing to daily physical and mental exercises.
Hip Fracture Recovery and Dementia
According to Wilson, “my clients with dementia who were ordered to be non-weight bearing forgot how to walk and were confined to a wheelchair. Ordering non-weight-bearing status for a patient with dementia for 4 to 6 weeks is a negative factor that few surgeons consider when deciding to do pinning, where the bone is required to heal before returning to weight-bearing activity.”
Other concerns are an inability to initiate exercise or remember to do exercises. If you have a loved one with dementia, your one-to-one participation may be required during physical therapy sessions at a nursing home or rehabilitation community and at home.
People with early memory loss may see small impacts. For example, struggling to organize thoughts or activities, being more stressed or impatient than normal.
Task Planning To Speed Getting Back to Normal
Regaining independence, also known as “getting back to normal,” can take time after a hip replacement or any major surgery for older adults.
After surgery, older adults may not feel like themselves. Driving a car may be prohibited, especially for parents with a previous diagnosis of dementia. Lifting items like grocery bags or carrying a laundry basket to the washing machine may be discouraged.
Concerns may exist about showering or bathing without someone around, just in case help is needed. Preparing and cooking a meal can be exhausting.
There are so many things that aren’t discussed in detail about pre- and post-surgery. Most individuals focus on the day of the surgery rather than before or after.
Household Management Before and After Hip Surgery
Non-medical in-home caregivers can help with tasks like laundry, grocery shopping, picking up prescriptions, cooking meals, and being available in case help is needed with bathing, dressing, or even putting on socks and shoes.
Small tasks like putting on socks and shoes, rolling over to get out of bed, or even rolling trash cans to the curb can be difficult after hip surgery.
- Hire a lawn or snow care service if you normally do this work
- Hire a housekeeping service so that the home is clean top to bottom
- Identify a home-delivered meal source or prepare several weeks of meals and freeze them
- Consider a dog walker or pet service while in the hospital or rehab, and afterward
Is It a Good Idea to Have Extra Care at Home After Surgery for Knee or Hip Replacement?
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Rehab After Surgery for Elderly
And then there’s the discharge after a hospital or rehab stay. Previously healthy and active people usually return home after hip surgery.
Adults who have multiple health conditions or who are physically weak usually are discharged from the hospital and spend about 20 days in a nursing home for rehab with a doctor’s order and confirmed progress toward recovery.
While few elderly people want to go to a nursing home, the daily routine of bathing, nutrition, and exercise can be a positive reset for developing an at-home routine.
Support and Motivate Elderly Parents
Motivation to improve is critical. Refusing to participate in physical therapy will result in an early discharge from nursing home rehab, especially for elderly parents with dementia.
Be forewarned instead of naïve. Twenty days of rehab are not guaranteed by Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan for the typical hip surgery recovery time for elderly parents. Some elderly parents need less or more time.
Be prepared in case your elderly parents refuse to go to a nursing home for rehab or are admitted to a nursing home for rehab and refuse to participate in physical therapy. Learn more about nursing home care for the elderly by checking out The Caring Generation podcast Episode 51, Nursing Homes and Rehab What Caregivers Don’t Know.
Defrailing: Reducing Hip Surgery Recovery Time for the Elderly
The time that the elderly commit to physical therapy and exercise directly relates to the speed of recovery. Initially, there can be a challenging balance between getting a good night’s sleep or enough rest and having the energy for physical and mental activity.
If you or an elderly parent wants to recover quickly, get physically and mentally engaged as soon as possible after hip surgery, and consider these steps. Complete physical therapy at a skilled nursing or rehab community or at home, and then:
- Start by walking in the mall or through the grocery store. Increase walking outdoors if the weather is good. Graduate to the treadmill, tread climber, elliptical, bicycle, or stair climber at the gym, with your physician’s approval.
- Consider joining a recreation center where you can learn to use the weight equipment if you haven’t used it before. Weight training, even in small amounts of 5 to 10 pounds, can make a significant difference in strength and endurance.
Steps to Take if You’re Feeling Emotionally Insecure About Leaving the House Alone
There are home safety devices with GPS tracking that can be worn outside the home and connect to a cellphone. Knowing this can give your family comfort, knowing where you are. In the event of an emergency, the GPS device can contact the call center or a family member.
Sometimes just knowing that you can call someone for help adds a bit of security to going out. You can also call a friend before going out and say, I’m going to the grocery store. If I don’t call you in an hour, please call and check on me.
If you’re more adventurous and enjoy hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, or other outdoor or remote activities, you can purchase a satellite GPS tracker that offers messaging to family members and an SOS emergency call system.
There’s No Reason to Limit Physical Activity When You Can Embrace It!
Defrailing and regaining physical mobility and function require effort before and after surgery. Defrailing can be an effective eldercare strategy for maintaining activity and supporting long-term health.
Recovery from hip replacement surgery for the elderly can be easy. Other times, more difficult. While it’s impossible to predict the outcome, gaining pre-and post surgery knowledge puts more control in your hands about what happens next.
The more you prepare and seek education before the surgery, the better. Gain the knowledge you need, whether you are in good physical condition or have health issues, to put yourself in a better position to recover. Talk to your doctors and your surgeon to be as informed and educated as possible.
And one more thing: make sure your health insurance is pre-approved for your surgery if it’s needed. The last thing you want is a big bill and a surprise that your doctor’s office didn’t send the pre-authorization to your insurance company.
Schedule a 1:1 or Family Consultation with Caregiving Expert Pamela D Wilson for Support On This or Other Eldercare or Caregiving Topics.
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