Characterizing hip motion during activities of daily living.

In the United States alone, 332,000 people received a total hip replacement (THR) each year [1 – need to reattach ref]. Following a total hip arthroplasty, doctors get asked by their patients if they can still do particular activities. There is not enough information out there for them to confidently answer their patients. Additionally, their patients’ questions stem for fear of dislocating. Hip dislocation occurs in between 2% and 11% of patients and is estimated to cost at least $75 million per year [2 from Hip Char protocol]. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore activities of daily living (ADLs) that can cause hip dislocation in THA patients so that clinicians can give better instructions to patients and improve post-op rehabilitation strategies following surgery. Our goal is to quantify the movement strategies employed (by healthy persons) to complete these common tasks and identify the motions that can make a person more vulnerable to hip dislocation.