How to choose a hip & knee surgeon

In Canada, any orthopaedic surgeon performing hip and knee replacements has completed medical school, a five-year residency in orthopaedic surgery, and certification with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC). Many also complete a one-year fellowship focused specifically on hip and knee reconstruction — extra, targeted training beyond the general residency.

This is easy to verify and worth doing. The College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta maintains a public registry where you can confirm a surgeon's licence, specialty and any disciplinary history. It takes two minutes and it's a reasonable thing to check before any surgery.

Within orthopaedics, surgeons often have areas of concentration. Some do a broad general practice; others focus mainly on hip and knee replacement and do relatively high volumes of it. There's reasonable evidence in the joint replacement literature that surgeons and hospitals doing higher volumes of a specific procedure tend to see fewer complications and better functional outcomes on average — though this is a statistical pattern across large groups, not a guarantee for any one patient.

It's entirely reasonable to ask a surgeon directly: "How many hip (or knee) replacements do you do in a typical year?" A surgeon who does this as their main focus should be able to answer without hesitation.

You'll come across a lot of terminology: anterior approach, posterior approach, robotic-assisted, computer-navigated, partial vs total knee. These are real and sometimes meaningful differences in technique, but no single approach is unambiguously "best" for every patient. What matters more is whether the surgeon has real experience and confidence with the approach they're proposing for you, and whether they can explain why it fits your specific joint, anatomy and goals — not just that it's the newest option.

If you're curious about one particular technique, our article on the anterior hip replacement, end to end walks through what that approach actually involves.

A good consultation should leave you with a clear picture of: what your joint looks like on imaging, what your realistic options are (including not having surgery yet), what the surgery itself involves, and what recovery will genuinely require of you. If a surgeon rushes through this, or you leave with more confusion than clarity, that's useful information — regardless of their credentials.

Our guide on what to expect at your first consultation sets out what a thorough visit should cover, so you know what to expect and what to ask for if it's missing.

• What's your training and fellowship background?
• Roughly how many of this specific procedure do you perform per year?
• What approach do you recommend for me, and why?
• What complication rates should I realistically expect?
• Who manages my care if something goes wrong after surgery?
• What does the recovery plan actually look like, week by week?

If you're also weighing a privately funded pathway, it's worth pairing this list with our article on questions to ask before private surgery.

Credentials and volume narrow the field, but the final decision is often about fit: do you feel heard, is the plan explained in plain language, and do you trust this person to manage you if things don't go exactly to plan? Those instincts, formed in a real conversation, are worth as much as any statistic.