How old is too old for a hip or knee replacement? Dr. Schultz has replaced joints in patients in their 90s who did beautifully, and operated on 90-year-olds who looked perfect on paper and were devastated by the same operation. So when people say age is just a number, he understands what they mean. But it is not the entire story.

In this episode: why the lower age limit keeps dropping, why it is almost never the joint that fails an older patient, what the research actually shows about surgery after 80 and 90, the three things that worry him most (the brain, the bone, and the second knee), where he draws the line as a surgeon, and why an 82-year-old still has 7 to 8 years of life expectancy worth living without pain.