FASTREC® Surgery

GET BACK TO LIFE!

Surgery should always be a last resort, but if nothing else has worked and your life is being taken away, there may be no other reasonable option. Nevertheless, fear of a long and painful recovery leads many people who could benefit from surgery to postpone it or even avoid it all together.

FASTREC® Fast-Recovery Hip and Knee replacement techniques were created by Dr. Martin because the best recovery is just getting back to a normal life as soon as possible. Whether it be getting back to work, exercising, caring for loved ones, or doing whatever it is that makes you happy, FASTREC® allows you to do these things with as little downtime as possible.

People who develop hip and knee problems generally are not sick and do not need to have a prolonged hospitalization or be discharged to a rehabilitation facility. In fact, studies show that longer hospital stays and prolonged periods of inpatient rehabilitation increase the most feared risks of hip and knee surgery (blood clots and infections). If you are up moving around and your blood is flowing, you are less likely to get a blood clot. If you are out of the hospital and back home away from all the germs, you are less likely to get an infection. With FASTREC®, most patients can leave the hospital on the day of surgery or after an overnight stay. Patients with medical issues and health conditions can also benefit tremendously from the techniques, but may require a second night in the hospital or in rare cases may go to a rehabilitation center (This is discouraged, but in some cases of patients with no family and no means for assistance, it may be the only option).

It is important for patients to get back to a normal life quickly, and that is why FASTREC® was created. So how is that possible? Well, FASTREC® is not a static method, it is a never-ending commitment to providing all aspects of care with the goal of a quick recovery in mind, while avoiding complications and promoting satisfying long term outcomes. Breakthroughs in education, avoidance of complications, new surgical techniques, methods of pain management, and rehabilitation have all come together to enable people to do things sooner after surgery than they could ever imagine!

Although all the details of FASTREC® are constantly evolving , here is an overview of how it works:

Candidates for hip and knee replacement surgery are identified based on numerous criteria into one of the following groups:

  • FASTREC®0 – Outpatient surgery
  • FASTREC®1- One night hospital stay
  • FASTREC®2- Two night hospital stay
  • FASTREC®R- Planned rehabilitation stay

Pre-optimization

  • We review your complete health history and risk stratify for the various issues that can occur and come up with an individualized plan for optimization of outcomes
  • We work with your primary care provider and other specialists to ensure all health issues are optimized

Pre-habilitation

  • We provide an exercise program that can be done to improve your condition going into the procedure. Studies have shown that the condition you are in going into the surgery has a tremendous impact on how you recover and your long term outcome

Anesthesia

  • We use regional anesthetic techniques whenever possible, which avoid the after effects of general anesthesia.  Patients can be sleeping throughout if they would like or even be totally alert and awake (most patients don’t want that)

Muscle-sparing and patient matched surgical techniques

  • We are committed to choosing the best implant and less invasive surgical technique for an individual situation
  • Muscle sparing techniques are utilized for both hip and knee replacements
  • Incisions are closed with plastic surgery techniques and skin glue.  There are no staples or sutures to be removed and patients can shower immediately

Pain blockade

  • Pain is not a complication of surgery it is an expectation. So it is not something you wait for. Pain should be pre-emptively controlled.  Before, during, and after surgery, we utilize the latest methods to control pain before it starts
  • The latest breakthrough is a long acting anesthetic injected into the surgical site (www.exparel.com), that is utilized in all cases
  • Hitting numerous pain pathways helps patients to avoid intravenous narcotics, with associated side effects

Rehabilitation

  • Generally starts the day of surgery at the hospital
  • Transitions to home where full mobility is regained
  • Final phase of strengthening can be done in outpatient or on your own

Return to life

  • Generally, minimal restrictions and precautions are given to allow you to resume a normal life. Patients are encouraged to use common sense and use pain as a guide.
  • Click here to see a story of a bilateral knee replacement using ConforMIS patient specific knee technology and FASTREC® techniques: