The risks, stated plainly
Orthopedic surgery is generally safe and often life-changing. It is also surgery, and every operation carries risk. This page is the version we would want to read before deciding.
Why this page exists
Most medical tourism sites treat risk as an objection to be handled. We would rather you read it here, calmly, than encounter it for the first time in a consent form the morning of surgery.
Nothing below is specific to having surgery in Mexico. These are the risks of orthopedic surgery anywhere — the same list your surgeon at home would give you. What differs between providers is not the risk profile of the operation, but how carefully patients are selected, how well the facility controls infection, and how closely you are followed afterwards.
What raises the risk
Risk is not a fixed number attached to a procedure. It is specific to you, and these are the three things that move it.
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Existing medical conditions
Diabetes, heart, lung or kidney disease, clotting disorders and obesity all affect wound healing, anesthesia and clotting risk.
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The operation itself
The type of procedure, how long it takes and the anesthesia used each influence the likelihood of complications.
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Personal factors
Age, smoking, current medication, allergies and previous surgery on the same joint all contribute.
Short-term complications
These are uncommon, and they occur in the days and weeks following surgery.
- Blood clots in the leg, and rarely in the lungs
- Infection at the surgical site
- Nerve or blood vessel injury
- Excessive bleeding or a haematoma
- Reactions to anesthesia, and breathing difficulties
- Swelling, bruising and pain — expected rather than a complication, but worth stating
- Reduced mobility and muscle weakness during early recovery
Longer-term risks
- Chronic pain that persists beyond the expected recovery period
- Stiffness or a permanent loss of range of movement
- Implant loosening, wear or failure, years after a joint replacement
- A repair that does not heal, requiring revision surgery
- Arthritis developing in the joint over time despite successful surgery
When to seek help immediately
Contact us, or a doctor where you are, without waiting, if you have any of the following:
- Shortness of breath or chest pain — this is an emergency
- Swelling, pain or warmth in the calf — the sign of a clot in the leg
- Fever, or spreading redness around the wound
- Drainage from the wound, particularly if it is cloudy or smells
- Pain that is increasing rather than gradually settling
Distance is not a reason to wait. If a symptom would send you to a doctor at home, it should send you to one here — and it should send us a message at the same time.
How risk is reduced in practice
By assessing you properly before agreeing to operate, including the conditions that raise your risk. By operating in facilities where orthopedic patients are kept separate from infectious cases. By keeping you under observation in hospital, then visiting you daily in the hotel for a week. And by remaining reachable after you fly home.
If a provider's answer to this subject is that complications do not happen, that is the answer to be worried about.
Discuss your own risk factors with a surgeon
General risk figures tell you very little about your risk. Send your history and imaging, and the surgeon who would operate will tell you what applies specifically to you.