One of the most common conditions seen in old age people is a pain in their knees. This is since daily wear and tear caused by the workload puts significant stress on the knees. This stress, in a prolonged period, develops into a condition known as Osteoarthritis. Many people around the globe seek help for their knee pain treatment due to this condition. Knee replacement surgery is one of the most effective treatments for degenerated knees due to osteoarthritis. Although being the most accepted treatment option for degenerated knees, knee replacement surgery has many important factors that are to be aware of before considering it. There are certain types of this surgery ranging from fixing a particular disorder in the knee to the total knee replacement. The type of this surgery suitable for a patient depends upon the stage of degeneration in the knee.
Here are 4 of the most important things to know about Knee Replacement Surgery.
What is Total Knee Replacement?
As our knee is a type of joint that connects the thigh muscle with the lower leg muscle and provides the ability of movement in the lower leg. When a person is advised to get a total knee replacement as a knee pain treatment, it means that the pain in the knee is a symptom of degeneration of the knee to the extent where recovery is not possible. So, in this procedure, a knee replacement surgeon replaces the affected knee with an artificial set of elements known as a prosthesis.
In this procedure, both the ends of the thigh bone and lower leg bone are replaced by the constituents of the prosthesis between which the main components of the artificial knee get fixed. The constituents of the prosthesis include a metallic shell, artificial kneecap, and polyethylene post. All these elements work in coordination to provide the functionality of the natural knee.
Who is advised to get Knee Replacement surgery?
Patients who seek knee pain treatment are assessed by the doctors for the reason for their pain. When it is found that knee pain is caused by the degeneration of the knee, the patient is advised to consider knee replacement surgery or total knee replacement as a treatment option.
Statistically, it is seen in most patients such damage in their knee is caused by a condition known as osteoarthritis. In this condition, the cartilage between the joints is deconstructed due to excessive stress. When the patients suffering from this condition reach the stage where they find knee pain as an obstruction in their daily activities, they usually seek medical help from knee replacement surgeons. These doctors help the patient to understand all the risk factors of knee replacement surgery to make it easy for the patient to make a decision that suits them.
Risk Factors of Total Knee Replacement
Some of the rare complications that can be caused by knee replacement surgery are:
- Blockage in the nerves of legs
- Blood clots in the lung arteries
- Side effects of pain killers (kidney damage)
- Excessive bleeding in the knee
- Damage in the nerves
- Infection
- Pain due to cold temperature
All these risk factors of total knee replacement are just a possibility. One should not make their decision based on the possibility of complications due to a procedure as every decision has the capacity to cause certain harm. Rather than focus on the risk factors, one should assess the need for knee replacement surgery for themselves. If you find it necessary to get this surgery done on you then your primary concern must be finding an expert knee replacement surgeon. With a good practitioner, the possibilities of risk factors of knee replacement surgery become negligible.
Recovering from a total knee replacement
As knee replacement surgery is considered major surgery, it is done under the supervision of the best practitioners. The surgery itself takes 2 to 3 hours of operating the patient. After the surgery, the patient is kept under extreme observation to continuously check the vital signs. When the vital signs of the patients are found to be steady, they are shifted to the general room of the patient. After these following things become part of the recovery period of the patient:
- Until the patient is capable to move after the total knee replacement, a catheter remains inserted in the urethra of the patient to ensure that the urine is passed.
- One of the most important post operative treatments of knee replacement surgery is physiotherapy done on the patients. This includes assisting the early walk of the patient, making the patient exercising in a controlled manner etc. and is done by a professional physiotherapist only.
- In the recovery period of total knee replacement, certain degree of pain must be expected while going through physiotherapy
- The first signs of recovery from this surgery are confirmed when the patient becomes capable to walk using the walker.
After this, the patient is discharged from the hospital and is sent home to continue the recovery.
Conclusion
Knee replacement surgery is not only a knee pain treatment. It is the process in which total knee replacement can be done depending upon the condition of the knee of the patient. It is important for the patient to choose an expert best knee replacement surgeon in Ahmedabad to ensure full recovery of their knee.
Dr. Dhaval Patel and Dr. Jenis Patel happen to be the doctors you are searching for your knee replacement surgery as he comes from an experienced background of procedures like these. To know more about your knees make an appointment at Shivanta Hospital.