Wooden Is Alert, Comfortable After Operation on Right Hip

John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach, was resting comfortably after a 3 1/2-hour hip replacement operation Wednesday at Hospital of Good Samaritan in Los Angeles.

“The operation went extremely well,” said surgeon Desmond Dall, program director of orthopedic surgery at Good Samaritan and a professor of clinical orthopedics at USC.

Dall said Wooden, 80, was alert and comfortable after the procedure, which is known as a right total hip replacement.

Wooden is expected to remain in the hospital for about two weeks, with rehabilitation taking another six to eight weeks.

Wooden said in June that he decided to have the surgery because it had become increasingly difficult to walk without a cane. “In the house, I’ve always got a wall nearby, or a chair, so I don’t use it around the house,” he said. “But if I go outside--even to go out and get the mail or something--I need the cane.”

After rehabilitation, Wooden, who was an All-American basketball player at Purdue before becoming a coach, “will be walking a lot better than he is now,” Dall said.

Dall said that hip joints usually are replaced because of a mechanical-type arthritis known as osteoarthritis.