Hip Talk Forum About Hip Resurfacing

People have asked that I post a poll about clunking. 

It is a common occurence for many patients post op.  Normally, it is felt and maybe heard, but causes no pain.  The general reason for clunking is that the muscles around the new hip device are weak.  Eventually the muscles heal and the clunking is gone. Occasionally, some people will feel the clunking long after their recovery during a certain activity or position, but it is very rare for most people.

Hi Pat,
I read your poll about clunking.  My husband has had NO clunking or clicking, but that is not listed as a choice.  He will be 2 weeks postop this upcoming Monday.   He is doing remarkably well.  Just says it feels like a charlie horse when he walks around.  It is simply amazing.  Thanks, again, for this wonderful website.
Eileen

Hi Eileen

Thanks for the note. I added a selection to the poll that says - I had no clunking at any time.

Now you can add your hubby's info to the poll.

Tell you husband to give himself time to heal. All the problems eventually work out for most people. He will really be amazed this summer when he is running around!

Good Luck. 

Pat

14 weeks and the clunking is tapering off. Still there but becoming less frequent.  At least it doesn't freak me out now, I've gotten used to it.
It does seem to come in waves though, it will click and knock quite a bit for a day or two and then hardly at all for a few days. 

I get the occasional clunk when I twist my upper body, and when I'm stretching in the pool. But it doesn't hurt at all. I'm only at 24 days post-op, so don't know if it will continue.

- Ray

I too have occasionally clunking...when I sort of bend forward at a tilt...but it never hurts and I am now 5 months post op. :)

I've had my BHR for 7 weeks today. My clunking story is similar to most posted here. Clunking or popping began about 2 weeks and was fairly frequent. At 7 weeks it clunks occasionally, but much less frequently. There has been no pain associated with the clunk. Asked my doctor about it last week at my 6 week checkup. He wasn't concerned since there was no pain. He said they believe the clunk is caused by a ligament slipping back and forth over the prosthesis and should go away with time.

Prairie Girl
Age 38
Left BHR Nov. 16, 2008
Dr. Scott Cook
Shawnee Mission Medical Center

I've had some clunking from time to time in these first 2 weeks.  For me it's been a similar experience to having ligaments in the ankle stretching and sliding over the bone.  Not too concerned as it is not painful.  Seems more prevelant after working the new hip.
todd

Hi,

I have just started to clunk after 7 weeks... Is this normal?

Thanks

Graeme

Graeme,
From what Iread here, nothing is normal and everyone seems to have different things happen a different times.  My clunking started pretty much right away.  Now it doesn't happen often.  I can make it happen regularly if I do a kind of slow hula-hoop motion.  No pain though.
JohnS

My guess, Graeme, for what it's worth, is that you're challenging your new hip in ways you may not even aware of.  Each new level of recovery brings with it a new array of symptoms.  Unless you think something has shifted out of position, I would think it's probably nothing to worry about.

About a year ago I started PT to help me deal with my arthritis.  To my surprise (and to that of my PT), my healthy left hip would clunk every time I did a leg lift.  Meanwhile, my affected, arthritic hip was quiet.  In my case, I think it was a tendon or ligament (maybe the psoas tendon) suddenly shifting under tension from one side of the joint to the other.  It felt almost like a bass guitar string being plucked.  It still does it.  It's just something I've gotten used to.

Quote from: Grimbo on January 26, 2009, 03:46:48 AM
Hi,

I have just started to clunk after 7 weeks... Is this normal?

Thanks

Graeme

I've clunked from the beginning but it has lessened with time, but I still clunk once in a while at 7 weeks.  Notice it maybe 1 - 3 times a day.

I saw my doc Tuesday for my 6 week check up. I menitioned the popping and clicking that was going on in my new hip. It doesn't hurt at all. It almost feels like cracking a knuckle. The xrays were perfect, so nothing has moved. He thinks the clunking is caused by some slight impingement brought on by specific movements. I tend to clunk when I am changing position or direction. Dr. Mayman said that the impingement can cause the ball to lever out of the socket just a millimeter or 2. The clicking noise is the ball snapping back into the socket. As the surrounding muscle structure strengthens, and is capable of holdong things together more strongly, the clunking should go away.

I am only Day 11 post op on Right and Day 8 on left and I haven't noticed any sounds from the new hips.  Is it an actual metallic sound or is it more of a feeling of movement in hip?

Clunking is a "sensation".

When you move in certain positions (everyone's different on what positions), it feels like a clunk clunk, like something heavy is separating from another part and then going back into that part....I've never had a noise with that sensation.

But as your muscles get back in shape and stronger, the sensation is less and less.

I believe almost every resurfacing patient has felt this sensation - some more, some less.

QuoteClunking is a "sensation".

BTW, thanks Karen for your list of what to expect from the Dr. Gross surgery! That is a good comprehensive list of what to expect.  I remember reading that shortly after surgery and it eased my mind about the clunking sensation.  I have it still occasionally and am still within 8-weeks post-op.  However I dont really think about it anymore when it happens since I am aware of it being normal.  Oh and never any pain with it...

...Though when I was between Right and Left surgeries in the hospital shower, I did this pre-op twist thing I used to do to "pop" my hips -- an unconscious habit. I did it without even thinking and immediately thought I just messed up bad  :o  :-[ .  I felt that clunking and that time it was a faster "clap" between the two pieces with a blunt metal-to-metal "ping" to it - like if you were to briskly stick two of those large metal stress-balls together.  That freaked me out.  So after Dr. Gross looked at it and everything was still fine I attributed most of the panic to over-reaction and a pain-med induced imagination.  After that I was "walking on eggshells" to be careful  :D

I'm glad the list helped to reassure you landaq007....

Its good to see you coming along....and please don't "pop" your hips in the shower anymore....jeese that scared me when you said that  :o

I still feel clunking sensations (but not as much), but my muscles, tendon, etc where crap (not being used) prior to this wonderful surgery....but NO PAIN AT ALL!!! NO MORE HIP PAIN! WOO-HOO!

Try to go easy with sleeping on a side...when you do this are you stuffing pillows between your legs first and moving as one unit?

Just make sure to protect your hips...its better to be a little cautious in the beginning while everything is trying to heal. It sounds like your coming along very well. Are you doing your phase I or Phase II home PT?

Quote from: landaq007 on March 30, 2009, 12:19:58 AM

QuoteClunking is a "sensation".

BTW, thanks Karen for your list of what to expect from the Dr. Gross surgery! That is a good comprehensive list of what to expect.  I remember reading that shortly after surgery and it eased my mind about the clunking sensation.  I have it still occasionally and am still within 8-weeks post-op.  However I dont really think about it anymore when it happens since I am aware of it being normal.  Oh and never any pain with it...

...Though when I was between Right and Left surgeries in the hospital shower, I did this pre-op twist thing I used to do to "pop" my hips -- an unconscious habit. I did it without even thinking and immediately thought I just messed up bad  :o  :-[ .  I felt that clunking and that time it was a faster "clap" between the two pieces with a blunt metal-to-metal "ping" to it - like if you were to briskly stick two of those large metal stress-balls together.  That freaked me out.  So after Dr. Gross looked at it and everything was still fine I attributed most of the panic to over-reaction and a pain-med induced imagination.  After that I was "walking on eggshells" to be careful  :D

Quote
Try to go easy with sleeping on a side...when you do this are you stuffing pillows between your legs first and moving as one unit?

Just make sure to protect your hips...its better to be a little cautious in the beginning while everything is trying to heal. It sounds like your coming along very well. Are you doing your phase I or Phase II home PT?

Thanks Karen. Yes I do move them as one unit with the pillow between the legs.  I am doing the phase 2 home exercises now.  I feel really good now and I am taking it easy activity-wise for the next few months.  I have to consciously remind myself that I just had surgery -- and thankfully everyone around me reminds me too!  That is how well I have recovered!

 ::)
Hi, I am 12 weeks post op and get a clunking a few times a day.  My PT almost had a heart attack when he twisted my leg and heard and felt a big clunck.  It may be good as it is a reminder of what we have in our body and to be careful.

The Flash

Quote from: uberalan on March 27, 2009, 02:16:49 PM
I am only Day 11 post op on Right and Day 8 on left and I haven't noticed any sounds from the new hips.  Is it an actual metallic sound or is it more of a feeling of movement in hip?

I spoke too soon.  About week 4 I started feeling the clunking and it still continues.  It doesn't hurt and I guess I am getting used to it.

i'm 8 months post-op and still get clunking,especially if i've been stretching or shifting position.i've never had it when i've been out walking though and seeing as most people get it i'm not worried.
the first time it happens though,all sorts of things go through your mind !!!

I find the results of these polls to be very interesting.  I have also felt this like-bone-popping in my leg.  I think it comes from my knee area.  I am now 2 1/2 weeks post op.

I have some clunking when I tap my foot up and down on the floor of my office, and also whilst riding the stationary bike.

I'm not too concerned about it as is doesn't hurt!!!!!!! ::)

And also Physio says "Not to Worry"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a little confused about clunking.  If I'm clunking will it be obvious?  What does it feel like?  Does it happen immediately or down the road.  I'm 2 weeks post and I don't think I've clunked. ???

Mark

Hi Mark

If you had some clunking - you would feel it in your hip and sometimes almost hear it.  It is the two components of the cap and cup separating a little bit and then coming back together.  Not everyone has it.  It does not hurt, but is a strange sensation.  I had it right from the begining.

You might never have any.  Nothing to worry about.  Don't feel bad - be glad you are on the road to recovery and don't worry about anything that is not happening to you ;)

Good Luck.

Pat

I call it "thunking" because it's more like a soft sensation and not a noise?  Kind of freaky when it first happens - but I only experience it when I turn/bend just right.  I thought it was just tendons/ligaments sliding over the device??

just to be clear, according to Dr. Phillips, the "clunking" isn't the ball and socket, it's the nerve or muscles sliding over the new hip, slipping into place. It will continue until they strengthen and hold their places better. If the ball came out of the socket even a millimeter, you'd know about it from the pain. It will go a way as long as you continue working and stretching.

What ever it is, the poll was a jinks.  3 and a half weeks plus, I fill out the poll and a day later, the clunking/clacking begins.  I mostly notice it when I have been standing for long periods and then shift my weight.  Should have waited a while longer to fill out the poll. 

I will take the clicking and clacking and my new found range of motion and being pain free over the pre op pain any day!

Life with a BHR is wonderful!

glad you've got a good attitude about it, it still happens every now and then when I'm doing some deep stretching (7 & 10 months, bi-hippy).

I get a little big of clunking but not much.  Like Hernan, usually when stretching.

I was squeaking for a couple of days, but not anymore.  Does that count?

My left one does all the clunking which happens getting up and down, I do this up to 30 times a day changing water meters so it is a constant thing. No pain in this hip although the other side doesn't clunk but gives pain constantly.

     I'm a lunk head but not clunking...yet.  Curt

I still click after 3-1/2 years.  Mostly when I am standing and slightly moving or during exercises.  It does not hurt and I am use to it.

No clunking yet, other than my head!

Curt

Quote from: fenceman on February 03, 2012, 03:15:29 PM
I still click after 3-1/2 years.  Mostly when I am standing and slightly moving or during exercises.  It does not hurt and I am use to it.

i still clunk and click in the morning too........after 3 1/2 years, no pain for me neither and i'm fitter than i've been for years

I have started to clunk.  No pain just a weird sensation/feeling.  It happens mostly after a PT session or during it.  Long walk can make it start too. (long walk is relative to recovery).  This website has definitely put me at ease with it....or I would have been back to the Dr. wondering  what was going on!
Joe
RBHR Dr. Su 4/20/12

THis is totally my opinion about "clunking"....The noise I think is not an audible noise but a sound that our inner ear picks up....fwiw

 ??? I'm 8 months Post OP.  I'm not sure if I have clunking, or just a snap of a tendon or what.  I can occasionally feel something that seems like something is moving inside.  No pain at all.  However, I had the same sensation BEFORE Surgery, so my guess its not the joint, but a tendon.  I've run, taken stairs 2 or 3 (to see if I could) at a time and never a peep out of the hip.  If I felt something its likely to be in a "no -load" situation, where I may stretch to reach something.   This topic made me curious, so I stood up, leaned lean to one side with my weight on the non-BHR leg, and kicked my lower leg back and forth rapidly.  This would be similar to a motion where you are trying to shake something off your shoe, away from your body.  I can feel / hear a little of what may be "clunking" that I do not get from the other side.  I dont notice anything that would seem like it could dislocate.  But unless I'm a dog trying to scratch, I would never do this motion. 
Also, realizing the mechanics of the device, and the fact that most or all of the natural ligaments were removed during surgery, I would expect some clunking in that situation.

Quote from: Wyoming Kim on October 13, 2012, 07:22:48 PM
THis is totally my opinion about "clunking"....The noise I think is not an audible noise but a sound that our inner ear picks up....fwiw

I think this is absolutely true. I would ask others, standing right next to me, if they heard the 'clunking' and the universal answer was no. Yet I heard it loud and clear!

Consider the insult that was done to your hip during surgery. It takes a while for things to settle back into place, but it does. I'm one month shy of 4 years out and I haven;t heard or flet any cliking/clunking in a long time :)

Submitted FWIW,

Kyle

I was standing leaning over a counter at 2 weeks postop when I felt my repaired hip do a little slide in the socket.  This was a very strange sensation.  I am now 16 months postop and have made a great recovery but still occasionally feel my hip "slide" a bit and it also "clunks".  The sliding sensation usually happens when leaning over from the waist like when shaving.  My clunking started when I became more active.  It's most noticeable first thing in the morning and pretty much goes away as my joint warms up from activity.  I walk about 1000' first thing every morning to get the newspaper with the last 500' up a grade.  As soon as I start walking uphill my hip starts vigorously clunking away.  This has no real sensation although I can press my thumb hard against the joint and can feel it move with each step.  I did this with my wife's thumb and she could feel it move as well.  Dr. Pritchett was my surgeon and he says that this is normal although some patients never have this occur.  He even told me that he has one patient that he's done both hips where one thunks and the other doesn't.  My clunking does disconcern me a little because of what seems to me as excessive metal on metal contact when it happens.

This poll and all of the comments put my mind at ease while I was in the middle of freaking out.  I thought I was imagining the clicking sound, but my husband just heard it from three feet away!  I'm not experiencing any pain, so I'm not as worried.  I am so grateful for all of the information that everyone who has gone through this before me has posted.  Whenever I'm frustrated, concerned, scared, or simply tired of trying to recover from the surgery, I always end up reading posts and stories here.  I don't feel so alone, and it gives me some sort of push to do the exercises and stay positive.

Thank you,
Christina
RH, uncemented Biomet, Dr. Gross & Lee Webb
4/24/2013

I think a good chunk of us are clickin' and clunkin' machines until later on the supporting muscles get strong enough to stop it, Christina.

I had most of my clunking happen when I was in front of the bathroom mirror, shaving, brushing teeth and admiring myself (BIG  ;D )

I think part of it may have been that it was probably the quietest place I was in all day, or that in standing there and being concentrated on the blade and all, I was shifting sideways a lot. Whatever it is, at 2+ years it is almost nonexistent, once in a while I get a clunk, chuckle and go on.

I am beggining to think that the surgeon builds in a special clunk system to remind us all of the good work they have done. My clunking is now minimal but every so often I feel a little clunk. If I didn't clunk I wouldn't really remember I had a new hip most of the time.

I clunk occasionally and yes the first couple times you think YIKES what's wrong? ??? :-\ :o ??? No pain. Many of my other joints click and pop at times which I assume is the ligaments or tendons snapping over bone outcroppings. I asked Dr. Brooks and he said it was a minute 'opening' or dislocation and then the resultant clunk back into the socket. He said it was nothing to worry about and most likely would go away over time.

Again...no pain or other awkward feelings when it happens. Maybe a couple times a week. Sometimes I can get it to do it with the leg lift exercises while standing ( like marching) fairly high.

Otherwise as has been noted repeatedly. no pain and I often don't even think of the hip. What a great thing that my hip OA was totally fixed! 8)

8 months, Right hip, Dr. Peter Brooks

I'm coming upon the end of my 3rd year post bilateral HR and still have a clunk in my right hip.  I can create the clunk at will by bending my hip a certain way.  There is no pain but it's definitely audible and you can feel the slight clunking sensation.  Last year an MRI and xrays were taken and everything, in the surgeon's viewpoint, was perfect.  Yesterday, I experienced a noise never heard before also in my right hip.  I had been doing some intensive rototilling of the garden and like with other strenuous activities, have felt some tightening in the hips.  When I went to take off my shoes I heard this weird noise sort of a muffled squeak/grind coming from the hip area.  This was extremely disconcerting as I thought I really did something to my implant.  I've been active my whole life, religiously doing strength training, stretching and cardio both before and since my surgeries.  I've been doing exercises prescribed to me by physical therapists after the surgeries along with an assortment of hip strengthening and overall strength conditioning.

I'd appreciate any advise as to alleviate the clunking and insite into what may be causing my newly experienced noise.

Thanks,
Jim

Beginning month 5 after resurfacing and still clunking.  Mostly when bending forward, yoga stretches, standing at the sink brushing my teeth.  No pain, just a weird sensation like something is falling out of place.  It was rather disconcerting at first, like the implant was moving.  Just the muscles moving over the top of it.  Nothing audible, just a feeling.