subject: Bilateral Knee Replacement – An Effective Surgery for the Young Patients [print this page] Bilateral Knee Replacement An Effective Surgery for the Young Patients
Arthritis is a most common cause for excruciating pain and hobbling gait in the aging persons. If left untreated for a long period of time, it may progress to advanced stage. In that case, medication will fail to cure the problem and knee replacement surgery is the only way to get relieved of the ailment.
If a person suffers from Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, then chance is greater that both of his/her knees are affected almost to a similar degree. In that case, the patients are willing to go for bilateral knee replacement to get back to normalcy. By getting both the knees replaced at a time, the patients can avoid the second time admission for surgery on the other knee in immediate future.
Bilateral knee replacement is recommended for the young patients as majority of them are not diagnosed with any cardiac problem. On the contrary, this surgery carries a greater risk for the old personnel. For them, it is better to go for TKR that requires maintaining a gap of one or two months between two replacement surgeries. So the patients have to stay at least two months in hospital. Of several benefits of bilateral replacement of knee, lower cost and shorter recovery period are what appeal most to the patients. In case knee replacement is done in two phases, the patients require 4-6 months to recover and revert back to the normal course of action. Surgical risk of bilateral knee replacement is significantly higher in case of the elder patients. The patients experience some serious complications in the post-operative stage. Temporary disorientation and fatal cardiac disorder are the commonest problems the patients suffer from after knee replacement operation. Some patients also require blood transfusion.
In spite of these complications, bilateral replacement is a better option in certain cases. Moreover, knee replacement on separate dates may also inflict the same complications on the patients. But same-day both-knee surgery is associated with greater risk. Risk of heart attack is not negligible in case of normal knee replacement but it is remarkably higher in same-day knee surgery. Now which one is better for you can only be answered by an experienced surgeon. Whatever surgery you are undergoing, the recovery period is crucial for you. You must follow the doctor's suggestion for a speedy recovery. Osteonecrosis may also lead to bone collapse and arthritis if not cured in the early stage. Pain starts in the hip joints and over time travels to knees. There is hardly any effective treatment in the initial stage and prolonged bed rest fails to prove any significant result. Treatment in the later stage involves both hip resurfacing or replacement.
Partial or total hip replacement is done if only the surface cartilage is damaged. But if the extensive damage reaches to the bony structure, hip resurfacing is the preferred remedy for the patients. Massive bone collapse is generally experienced by the young adults only. So, in that case, the doctors often perform surface hip replacement in order to conserve bony stock.
