COGAN STATION, Pa. -- A man in Lycoming County says he was surprised he needed a hip replacement and surprised again when he was home just a few hours after his surgery.
We talked with him and his doctor about a new option for hip replacement surgery.
If you want to find 53-year-old Barry Eisley from Cogan Station, check outside first.
"I cut firewood. I hunt and I fish, love the outdoors, gardening," Eisley said.
He's active and loves working around his house in Lycoming County.
Until about three or four years ago, when he thought he pulled a muscle in his groin and started working through pain.
"Usually within three or four days, you take it easy, it goes away. This never went away, and I started to develop a limp."
To Barry's surprise, an x-ray revealed he needed a hip replacement.
Dr. Jack Bailey, at UPMC Williamsport, thought Barry would be the perfect candidate to be the hospital's first-ever same-day hip replacement patient.
Traditionally, hip replacement surgeries are posterior, or done from the back. The anterior method is different.
"The difference is that we don't have to go through the muscles. We go between the muscles when we come in from the front. That creates less trauma, less pain," Dr. Bailey explained. "The new anterior hip, we're sending people home sometimes the same day, almost all the next day, usually people are walking pretty well at two weeks."
"I was actually up and walking around at the hospital three hours after the operation, and I went home, I'm going to say, seven hours after," Eisley said.
Dr. Bailey says he hopes if people are in pain, they won't wait for a consultation and might think of how successful Barry's case has been.
"He was an interesting gentleman because he was pretty active, and he was pushing through the pain. Afterward, he went back pretty quickly to doing the same activities," Dr. Bailey said.
At UPMC Williamsport, this same-day hip replacement surgery is an option. The traditional method is still available.
Dr. Bailey says patients need to be evaluated to figure out if the same-day procedure is right for them.