Knee replacement surgery is one of the most frequently performed bone surgeries in India. Your orthopaedician carefully examines and decides whether you need surgery or not. More than 90% of people whose knees have been replaced with surgery see a significant increase in their mobility and decrease in pain. Knee replacement restores damaged, worn, or sore facades of the knee joint. The goal is to relieve pain and restore mobility. It is otherwise known as knee arthroplasty or “knee resurfacing.”

In a knee replacement procedure, your surgeon removes the surface of the damaged joint and replaces it with metal and plastic implants. This allows the knee to move normally. Knee replacement surgery can help patients whose knee has worsened due to osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or post-traumatic arthritis when an injury has injured the knee. Various types of arthritis can affect the knee joint. Osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease that mainly affects middle-aged and elderly adults, can destroy articular cartilage and adjacent bone in the knee. Rheumatoid arthritis, which causes inflammation of the synovial membrane and causes excess synovial fluid, can cause pain and stiffness. Traumatic arthritis, arthritis associated with injury, can damage the knee cartilage.

This is considered a routine procedure. More than 600,000 knee replacement surgeries are performed in India each year. Most patients are between 50 and 80 years old. More than 90 per cent of patients experience a dramatic increase in pain and mobility. If the patients follow the surgeon’s instructions for knee care, knee replacement can work well after 15 years to 20 years. Most of them have doubts that this surgery is a major surgery? Then this blog will help you to know

This article provided by Dr Vasudeva Juvvadi gives information about How knee replacement surgery is a major surgery? Let us see!

What is knee replacement surgery?

Knee replacement surgery, also known as knee arthroplasty, replaces damaged, worn, or diseased cartilage and bone in the knee joint with a metal, ceramic, or plastic prosthesis. It aims to relieve your pain and allow your joints to move like natural joints to increase your mobility.

There are two main types of knee replacement:

• Total Knee Replacement Surgery (TKR): Your entire knee joint has been replaced.
• Partial Knee Replacement (PKR): Also known as unicondylar or partial knee replacement because only one side of your knee is replaced. This is used when knee arthritis is limited to one knee compartment. 

Based on the medical condition of your knee, your knee surgeon will recommend any one of the knee replacement surgeries for you.

Who might need a knee replacement?

But also a knee replacement surgery is often recommended if you suffer from:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Osteoarthritis
• Haemophilia
• Gout
• The disorder causes abnormal bone growth
• Bone death in the knee joint due to blood supply problems
• Knee injury
• Knee deformity with pain and cartilage loss
• Arthritis or knee injury that is very painful and affects your mobility, your ability to do daily tasks, the quality of your life and your sleep
• Have tried non-surgical treatments such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), physiotherapy and steroid injections and have not yet relieved your pain and supported your movements.

You may need to see an orthopaedician first if you experience persistent knee pain or have difficulty doing normal things due to stiffness or loss of mobility. They ask for a physical examination and order X-rays and blood tests to diagnose the underlying problem. Your doctor can recommend non-surgical treatment options and other options, including knee replacement surgery. If you are overweight, you may be asked to lose weight because this will reduce tension in your knee.

Preparing for surgery:

Before surgery, your surgeon will record your medical history and do a physical examination that includes an x-ray and maybe a blood test. Your doctor will use this X-ray to find out what your knee will look like. The doctor also wants to see how strong the muscle support around your knee is and how well you can move your joints.
Like all operations, tell your doctor what medication you are taking, including blood thinners, aspirin, or other drugs. You also need to know if there have been infections, bleeding, or blood clots in the past. Also, you may not eat 8 hours before surgery.

During the surgery:

Knee replacement requires hospitalization. The procedure can vary depending on your condition and your doctor’s experience. Knee replacement surgery is most often done under general anaesthesia. Your anaesthetist will discuss this with you beforehand. Usually, knee replacement surgery follows this process:

• You will be given a gown to wear.
• Intravenous (IV) line is put on your arm 
• You are positioned on the operating table.
• A urine catheter can be inserted.
• If there is excessive hair at the surgical site, it can be removed.
• Anesthesiologists continuously monitor heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and oxygen levels in the blood during surgery.
• The skin over the surgical area is cleaned with an antiseptic solution.
• Your surgeon will cut the front of your knee and move your patella to the side to reach your joints.
• They remove worn or damaged surfaces from the tips of the femur and the top of the shin bone and shape them to fit your artificial knee joint. The knee prosthesis is made of metal and plastic. The most common type of artificial knee prosthesis is cemented prosthesis. Uncemented prostheses are no longer used frequently. The cemented prosthesis is attached to the bone with surgical cement. A non-cement prosthesis is attached to the bone with a porous surface where bone grows attached to the prosthesis. Sometimes a combination of both is used to replace the knee.
• The prosthesis usually consists of 3 components: the tibia component (used to bend the tip of the tibia or the shin bone); Femoral component [femur bone] (to restore the tip of the femur; patellar component (to restore the patellar floor rubbing against the femur).
• The incision is closed with sutures or surgical clips.
• Drainage can be installed at the incision site to remove the fluid.
• Sterile dressing or bandages are worn.

Surgery can take 1 to 2 hours. Your doctor can do this in two ways. They might make 8 to 10-inch cuts on the front of the knee. They then remove the damaged joint and the surface of the femur and shin next to the joint. After this is done, the surgeon implants an artificial knee.

You may receive an operation called “minimally invasive”. In this case, the surgeon makes a shorter incision, about 4 to 6 inches. This causes less damage to the muscles and tendons. Someone thin, young and healthy is usually the right candidate for this technique.

After Surgery:

• You will usually be in the hospital for 3 to 5 days, but recovery time can vary.
• You can expect to get back up on your feet in a day. This can be difficult at first. You may need a parallel pole, a crutch, a walker, or a cane to stand for a while.
• After you are discharged, your surgeon will give you advice for caring for your knee at home. Initially, you need to use crutches, walkers, and a physical therapist will teach you exercises to strengthen your knees.
• You can usually expect a significant increase in flexibility and far less pain in a month. You need to have a regular exercise for your knees often to maintain swelling and strengthen your muscles.
• You may need the help of a physiotherapist who does a series of exercises to strengthen your knee that has been repaired. How long you need physical therapy depends on your health and how motivated you are to recover from your surgery.
• Most people can stop using a walker about six weeks after surgery and start driving after 6 to 8 weeks.
• Full recovery can take up to 2 years because scar tissue heals and your muscles heal through exercise. Very few people will continue to experience pain after two years.

So after seeing the above details of the surgery, we can say that Knee replacement is the most common procedure for joint replacement. However, this is major surgery and is usually only recommended if other conservative treatments such as physiotherapy or steroid injections do not help relieve pain and increase your mobility.

Conclusion:

Although there are options for non-surgical treatment of arthritis and knee injuries, knee replacement surgery cannot be avoided in certain circumstances. To determine whether you qualify for knee replacement surgery, you can consult with Dr Vasudeva Juvvadi Best Orthopedist, Joint Replacement Surgeon. He is a specialist in complex knee surgery and in hip surgery with experience in various types of joint replacement and treatment. His experience as a knee surgeon in this field extends to bilateral knee replacement, partial knee replacement, ACL reconstruction and the treatment of sprained knees.

Dr Vasudeva Juvvadi focuses on the needs of his patients and believes in treatments that are tailored for everyone. During a knee, a replacement consultation doctor will guide through the process until you are aware of all the risks that may be associated with the procedure.For advice with Dr Vasudeva Juvvadi, please contact his office at +91 88860 68368. If not, please make an appointment using our online contact form.