return to work · last reviewed 2026-06-08
Return to work after hip replacement
Clinical procedure: Total hip replacement.
Typical, evidence-anchored estimate only. It is not medical advice, not a prediction for your body, and not a substitute for your surgeon or clinician.
Every number on this page comes from a published study of real patients and links to its source. Return-to-work timing varies widely with the kind of job, the cohort studied, and the person — treat the figures as orientation, not clearance.
When you actually return is a decision made with your surgeon and, where relevant, occupational health. The data below describes cohorts, not your case.
what the studies document
Back to work
Work return, in the pooled numbers
Across 48 studies (9,267 patients), 70.7% returned to work — 87.9% of those who were working before surgery. Physically demanding jobs take measurably longer.
milestones from the timeline
- wk 10 ·Return to work (Desk ~4 weeks; manual labor 3-6 months (wide, job-dependent))
sources
What this page is built from
- National PROM registry after primary hip replacement (AOANJRR/ACORN) registry · reliability 9.5/10
- Postoperative pain trajectories in THA (PROMIS, n=1,249) retrospective cohort · reliability 8/10
- Return to work following primary THA: systematic review and meta-analysis meta-analysis · reliability 8.5/10
Track your own week-by-week so a flare doesn't erase the months behind it.
Start a recovery logThis page reflects published cohort data on hip replacement recovery — not medical advice, not a prediction for your body, and not a substitute for your surgeon or clinician.