subject: Partial Knee Replacement Surgery For Damaged Knee Joints [print this page] Partial Knee Replacement Surgery For Damaged Knee Joints
Are you affected with arthritis? The chance of getting affected by this disease increases as soon as one starts growing older. It is the disease that leads to immense joint pain that the inmates have to bear. However, for most of the people, it becomes really very difficult to tolerate the pain that they experience. To rid the problem, they opt for the total or partial knee replacement surgery. Along with the knee pains, they might also experience acute hip joint pains. The total hip replacement surgery is meant for those suffering from hip pains. Gender specific hip that is prepared drives the patients more towards this surgical process to get a properly fitting joint in place of the original one.
In case of the total knee replacement surgery, the whole knee joint is replaced with the prosthetic joint, but the partial knee replacement surgery is only concerned with replacement of the damaged cartilage in the knee affected of arthritis rather than removing and replacing all the cartilages. Several factors exist that make the inmates prefer partial knee replacement over total knee replacement surgery. The basic difference, however, is in terms of incision and recovery. In case of the total knee replacement, the incision that is made is quite big, whereas in case of the partial one, the incision is small and the time taken for recovery is also less as compared to the former.
The partial knee replacement surgeons, as per the painful stage of the patients, replace inner or the outer part of the damaged knee joint with a metal implant, thereby leaving the rest of knee parts intact as it is. This type of surgery is also referred as unicompartmental knee arthroplasty. The duration of this type of surgery lasts for about one and a half hours. The surgeons make an incision over the knee so that the damaged cartilage is visible. Then, the femur and tibia is cut flat and the edges are cleaned properly. After this, however, the partial knee replacement unicompartmental device is fitted into its exact place.
It is always advisable to the patients to go for other medications first and in case they are not effective, opt for the partial knee replacement. Some of these other medications may include prescription medications, cortisone injections, weight loss and physical therapy. In not all the arthritic cases, the unicompartmental arthroplasty can be undergone. Sometimes, it is found that only a small part of the knee joint is affected, and hence this operation is not carried out in such scenarios. If either an inner or outer part of the knee is adversely affected, a partial knee replacement surgery is considered as a perfect option.
For quick recovery after the partial knee replacementsurgery, the surgeons always suggest the patients to carry out the knee related tasks soon. This would ensure the flexibility of the knee joints and the inmates would not any more be troubled by the pain or inflexibility difficulties. In addition to knee joints, osteoarthritis also affects the hip joints. The surgery process is conducted in this case too, but to make the prosthesis fit well into the human body environment, gender specific hip joint is prepared.
