What can a hip replacement change for a patient whose sickle cell anaemia will stay with her for life?
Dr. Mahajan is Chairman Orthopaedics, Joint Replacement & Chief Robotic Joint Replacement at Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital, Saket.
A woman in her twenties could no longer walk because of her hip, and the operation she needed could not be done where she lived, so she was treated by Dr Ramneek Mahajan.
How did the hip problem start?
A family member says the patient, who has sickle cell anaemia, an inherited blood disorder in which red blood cells are misshapen and break down, developed a problem with her hip. The patient could no longer walk, sit or stand, and she limped.
What did the earlier doctors advise?
A family member says the patient was taken to a hospital, where an X-ray was done and the advice was a hip replacement.
The doctor who referred the patient says she was treated where she lived, but that this operation could not be done there, and advised coming to India.
What did this surgeon say had to be done?
Dr Mahajan says the patient came to his clinic because she could not walk; her sickle cell anaemia is not something he treats. A hip replacement was offered.
A family member describes feeling scared and anxious because of the sickle cell anaemia, and wanting to know everything.
What changed after the operation?
A family member says the operation took four to five hours and went well, and that afterwards she saw the patient in the intensive care unit. The physiotherapists checked on the patient every day until she was discharged, a physiotherapist then visited at home for 10 days, and the patient is doing better.
The patient says the operation is done and she is fine now.
Dr Mahajan says the patient can now walk; her sickle cell anaemia stays with her for life.
What should a patient with sickle cell anaemia and hip pain ask?
This is one woman's story, not a promise: what an operation can do for you depends on your own case.
Ask what a hip replacement can change, and what it cannot change about sickle cell anaemia.
Ask what physiotherapy will be arranged after you leave hospital.
What this case teaches
Sickle cell disease is an inherited condition of the red blood cells and is usually lifelong, the NHS says.
Hip replacement improved function in people with sickle cell disease, but complications were common, a 2025 review of 25 studies found.
Care from several specialists around the operation is essential in sickle cell disease, the same 2025 review concludes.
Doing the exercises early on helps the hip's long-term strength and movement, the NHS says.
