With time, the knee joint starts to wear, most often due to arthritis or some old injury to the knee. This can make simple everyday activity such as walking seem like a daunting task. You may begin to experience pain even while sitting. It can get worse all the more if left untreated. However, joints can be replaced to ease the pain, regain mobility and resume normal activities through knee replacement surgery.
What is a total knee replacement surgery?
Total knee replacement surgery also called as anthroplasty, is a surgical replacement of the damaged knee joint with an artificial one (prosthetics) that makes it easy to make movement and gives relief from pain. It is one of the most common and highly effective orthopedic surgical procedures. In this surgery, the cartilage that has worn out is removed and a metal implant is fit into place to allow smooth and pain-free movement of the joint.
Who requires a Knee Replacement Surgery?
For the following reasons mentioned below, doctors may recommend you to go for a knee replacement surgery:
- Knee pain
- Stiffness
- Chronic knee inflammation
- Suffering from arthritis
- Knee deformity
How is Knee Replacement Surgery done?
The knee replacement surgery is a complex one that requires the surgeon to skillfully remove the damaged part of the bone in the knee joint and replace it with prosthesis, made of plastic, metal or ceramic. It is usually performed under general anaesthetic that means the patient is asleep throughout the surgery. The procedure includes:
- The leg is cleaned first.
- A general anaesthetic is given.
- Then an incision is made by the surgeon at the front of the knee
- The damaged ends of tibia and femur are carefully removed to insert the prosthetic replacement.
- A special glue called bone cement is used to fuse the prosthetic knee with the femur (thigh bone) and tibia (shin bone).
- The wound is then finally closed with either stitches or clips.
- The patient might have to stay for another 5-6 days in a hospital depending upon the recovery progress.
- The whole surgery can take around 1-3 hours.
What is minimally invasive knee replacement surgery?
In certain cases, other types of procedure are used. One of them includes minimally invasive knee replacement surgery. Here, the surgeon cuts less muscle and detaches less tendon from the bone. This leads to a faster recovery.
If you are above 55 years of age with immense pain /deformity in the knees, not relieved by routine painkillers or physiotherapy and severely incapacitated in your daily chores, book an appointment with Dr M.S Narula. Dr. MS Narula is currently the director of Narula Institute of Centre for Orthopedics Excellence (NICE) at Chandigarh City Hospital and Senior Consultant, Orthopedics Spine and Joint Replacement, Apollo Clinic Sector 8-C Chandigarh. He is also a US certified fitness specialist and a consultant to various health and fitness centres in Chandigarh. He is also a sports injury specialist.
He is a joint replacement specialist particularly in knee and hip, with over 18 years of experience. He uses imported implants with a life expectancy of 25-30 years. The technique used by him leads to minimize blood loss and cause less or no pain at all! Dr.MS Narula has more than 2000 joint replacements to his credit and is trained in the worlds best centres for the newest techniques of joint replacement. He is also a visiting surgeon, New Yorkshire hospitals UK.
