How does the femur get nutrients after a hip replacement surgery?

[WonderingHigh]

After a hip replacement surgery, how does a femur get it's nutrients? If the femur has a ligament attached to the head of it. The ligamentum capitis femoris attaches to the fovea femoris right? But in a hip replacement surgery don't they "chop" off or attach another piece of metal on the femur? So how would the ligamentum capitis femoris stay attached? Or would the femur live without the nutrients going to it?

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[ddmo]

You can ger a good rundown of a total hip replacement here: THA

and a good description about the ligamentum teres or capitis femoris here: Ligamentum teres

To answer your question, yes, the ligament is removed as you are removing both the head of the femur and the lining of the acetabulum, its two attachments. However, this has no significant impact on the nutrition of the rest of the femur for a few reasons. 1)The artery that accompanies the ligament is predominantly involved in providing nutrition to the femoral head during development and may not even persist in adulthood. 2) Any nutrition it does provide is to the femoral head which is removed anyways. 3) The rest of the femur receives its nutrition from the blood vessels that surround it more distally.

 

[WonderingHigh]

Wow, that was exactly the type of response I was hoping for, a good layout and fully anwsered! Thank you very much.