Dr. Joshua John-Ram SchacterDr. Joshua Schacter, DO FAAOS, is America’s Holistic Orthopedic Surgeon, with nearly two decades of surgical expertise.

The Ageless Journey of Joint Replacements

3 Nov 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:35

A short YouTube talk by Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter discussing joint replacement in elderly patients. He argues age alone is not a strict contraindication—he has operated on patients into their 100s—and emphasizes balancing quality-of-life benefits against increased surgical risks in older adults.

Questions this video answers

102 (age at time of surgery).

109.

No — he states he does not have an upper age limit, though he acknowledges increasing risk with age.

Chapters

Some of my healthiest patients are in their mid-80s. I mean, the oldest person I've ever done a joint replacement on was. I think we did it when she was 102 and she lived to be 109. So if you can change a person's quality of life by doing this joint replacement, I don't really have an upper limit of age. But of course, as we age, it gets riskier to do major surgery. And the more surgery you do, the higher your risk of complication, like infection or blood clot or whatever. We kind of look at surgery like it's a young person's game. But to be honest, younger people with joint replacements have a tendency to have a longer recovery than some of our older patients.