Do You Need A Knee Replacement?Have you ever come across the term "Arthroplasty"? Essentially, it refers to a knee replacement. Now, for your information, knee replacement is not an uncommon operation. In fact, it is commonly performed so that the patient can be relieved from the terrible pain or disability that is associated with arthritis of the knee. Knee replacement can either be total or unicompartmental. For total knee replacement, there would be replacement for all the three knee compartments namely medial, lateral and patellofemoral. For unicompartment knee replacement, this involves just replacement of one or both of the medial and lateral compartments. Patellofemoral replacement involves replacing the patellofemoral- The joint between undersurface of the Knee cap (Patella) and the femur. Knee operation is usually performed by qualified orthopedic surgeons who are familiar with the process of replacing the diseased and painful joint surfaces of the knee. They have to be well experienced to replace those affected surfaces with metal and plastic components that are designed to facilitate the knee's continued motion. The main reason for a surgeon to recommend surgery for an arthritis patient may be due to the incapacitating pain surrounding the patient's knee. When such pain begins to affect daily activities, it becomes necessary to recommend a total knee replacement. The patient and his family must be counseled and made aware of the risks that are associated with this surgery. Do be aware of the fact that in case there is an open infection in the operative area, this would be considered as an absolute contra-indication in the context of total knee replacement. At the same time, if this is only a source of infection somewhere else on the body, this would be regarded as a relative contra-indication. Other relative contra-indications include poor medical status, mental illness or disability and so on. inability to cooperate with post operative restrictions is relative contra-indications. For any major surgery, the general routine pre-operative work would resume as usual. This routine process for the knee replacement surgery would comprise X rays for the chest, ECG, blood cross matching and routine blood tests. The X rays pertaining to the affected knee is required so that the exact measurement of the component sizes can be obtained. As for other surgery, patients are usually advised to be admitted on the day before the surgery so that the pre-op work-up can be done without any hindrance. is done in the pre-anesthetic clinic or may come into hospital one or more days before surgery. After the knee operation, the patients are usually encouraged to move the very same knee that was operated. This advice is provided to help the patient to recover the range of motion early. The post operative hospitalization period may differ from patient to patient usually spanning just a day to an average of a week. This is usually determined on the bass of the patient's health. The amount of support available from the family or other support sources is also another contributive factor. However, it is the usual norm to begin walking with protected weight bearing. This can be done almost immediately after surgery but complete recovery may take up to three months and for some patients, recovery may extend beyond. With these useful tips, you can now brace yourself to face a knee replacement surgery with better confidence than before. |