Frequently asked questions.

No, not immediately. If you have a GP referral it comes straight to the rooms and someone will call you. If you do not, you can start with a telehealth consultation with a GP or with our nurse practitioner, who can assess you, arrange imaging and provide the referral. A referral is still needed to claim the Medicare rebate on the consultation with Professor Rodda.

The rooms contact you within two business days of receiving your referral and offer an appointment within four weeks. Tell them if your problem is urgent and it will be triaged accordingly.

A GP referral lasts twelve months from the date of your first consultation. A referral from another specialist lasts three months. If yours has expired you can still be seen, but the Medicare rebate may not apply.

The Sunshine Coast Orthopaedic Group rooms on Level 9 at Maroochy Private Hospital, 12 Future Way, Maroochydore. They are booked on (07) 5493 8038, Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 4.30pm.

Yes, and it is commonly used by patients from Gympie, the Wide Bay, interstate and overseas. A physical examination is required at some point before surgery is planned, but much of the assessment and most follow-up can be done remotely.

Your referral if you have a copy, your imaging (the images themselves, not only the report), a list of your medications, and your Medicare and health fund cards. Weight-bearing X-rays are far more useful than films taken lying down.

No. The practice is focused on hip and knee replacement. Shoulder, elbow, hand, foot, ankle, spine and paediatric problems are referred to colleagues within Sunshine Coast Orthopaedic Group.

No. Multiple randomised trials have shown no benefit from arthroscopic washout or debridement for knee osteoarthritis over placebo or conservative care. The knee arthroscopy page explains the position and refers on.

No. Where an osteotomy is the right operation, which happens most often in younger patients with wear confined to one side, the referral goes to a colleague who does that work.

Maroochy Private Hospital at Maroochydore. It is also where he consults, so the consultation, the pre-admission clinic, the operation and every review happen in the one building.

Yes. Every consultation and every operation in this practice is performed personally.

No. The X-ray describes the structure, not what should be done about it. A large proportion of people with clear radiographic osteoarthritis have no pain. The decision rests on what you have stopped doing, whether the joint wakes you at night, and what has already been tried.

There is no upper age limit. What matters is fitness for an anaesthetic, assessed by an anaesthetist, and what the operation would give you back. Joint replacement is performed routinely in people in their eighties and nineties.

Age is not the question; lifetime revision risk is. Population data puts the lifetime risk of needing a revision at around 35 per cent for men having a knee replacement in their early fifties, against around 5 per cent for those operated on over 70 (Bayliss et al, Lancet 2017). It is a trade-off rather than a threshold.

Almost never with arthritis. Waiting does not damage the joint in a way that makes the operation harder. What waiting costs is you: people who wait until they are housebound arrive deconditioned, and poorer function before surgery predicts poorer function after it.

Corticosteroid has a genuine role in a flare. Hyaluronic acid has mixed evidence and a modest effect at best. PRP and stem cell injections have no good evidence of structural benefit and are not offered here. Tell the rooms before having any injection, because steroid within about three months of surgery is associated with a higher infection rate.

One to three nights for either operation. Some patients go home the same day. You go home when you can walk safely with your aids, manage stairs if you have them, and your pain is controlled on tablets.

That is decided with your anaesthetist. Both operations can be performed under spinal anaesthetic with sedation, which is often preferred in older patients, or under general anaesthetic.

Cobalt-chromium and titanium alloys with a high-grade polyethylene bearing, usually fixed with bone cement. Every implant used in Australia is tracked by the national registry, so the choice is made against published national outcomes rather than preference.

A systematic review with more than fifteen years of follow-up estimated that about 58 per cent of hip replacements and about 82 per cent of knee replacements last twenty-five years (Evans et al, Lancet 2019). Those figures describe implants put in decades ago, so they are a floor rather than a forecast.

Infection, blood clots, stiffness, ongoing pain, leg length difference, nerve or vessel injury, fracture around the implant, and the need for revision at some point. The risks pages for the hip and the knee set out the actual figures with their sources.

After a knee replacement, two or three supervised sessions a week for the first six weeks. After a hip replacement, usually a short course rather than a programme. Book it before your surgery date and choose somewhere you can reach easily, because attendance is the variable that matters.

Hip: when you can perform an emergency stop without hesitation and are off strong pain medication, usually two to six weeks. Knee: usually four to six weeks on the same test. Check your insurer's position.

Desk work at two to six weeks, often part time first. Standing all day, ladders or heavy lifting is closer to three months.

Walking, swimming, cycling, golf, doubles tennis, hiking and skiing are all reasonable. Running and repetitive impact are generally advised against, because impact accelerates wear of the bearing and wear determines how long the implant lasts.

Australian guidance does not support routine antibiotic prophylaxis before dental procedures for most patients with a joint replacement. Active dental infection is a different matter and should be treated. Discuss it with your dentist.

It might. Some implants do, some never do, and it depends as much on the detector as on the implant. Implant identification cards are no longer required; telling the officer you have a joint replacement is enough.

You receive a written estimate covering the surgeon, the surgical assistant, the anaesthetist and the hospital, with the expected Medicare and health fund contributions and the out-of-pocket amount, before anything is booked. That document is called informed financial consent and you should not proceed without one.

An agreement between practitioners and a health fund to accept the fund's benefit as payment in full for the surgeon, anaesthetist and surgical assistant fees. Your hospital excess is separate and still applies. Professor Rodda participates in no-gap arrangements with several funds.

Joint replacement is available in the public system through your GP, and the rooms will say plainly if that is the more sensible route for you. Self-funded private surgery is possible and is quoted in full in advance.

The process differs and the rooms handle the approvals with the insurer. Nothing proceeds until the insurer approves it in writing, and in an accepted claim you should not receive a bill.