What is a total knee replacement?

The knee is one of the most important joints in the human body, and it allows you to walk, run and do a multitude of tasks. However, it can be affected by some diseases, being osteoarthritis one of the most limiting, explains the orthopaedic in Delhi.

Severe pain, stiffness, inability to move as before and swelling in the knee are symptoms indicative of osteoarthritis, that is, wear and tear on the knee.

In cases where the patient is very limited and does not improve with non-surgical treatment, also called conservative treatment, knee replacement surgery in Delhi may be necessary to place the total knee prosthesis.

Total knee replacement: understand more about this surgery

The prosthesis is a device that we implant in the diseased knee of people with arthrosis. Most often, the prosthesis is made of a metal alloy composed of chromium and cobalt. These metals are biocompatible, that is, they have a low risk of being rejected by our body. Therefore, they can be deployed safely. The procedure used by the orthopaedic surgeon in Delhi to place the prosthesis in the patient’s knee is called total knee arthroplasty.

After all, what is total knee arthroplasty?

This is a major surgery, characterized by the replacement of the diseased part of the knee with a new material, the prosthesis. When the entire knee is affected by arthrosis, we perform total arthroplasty. When only a small part of the knee is diseased, we can do partial arthroplasty, also called unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, explains the orthopaedic in Delhi.

Who is this surgery recommended for?

Patients with an advanced degree of arthrosis, who have severe movement limitations, severe pain, and who have not had satisfactory results with non-surgical treatment (eg, medications, physical therapy, viscosupplementation, platelet-rich plasma, shock waves, denervation of the geniculars).

Added to this, there are patients with arthrosis so severe that they are already directly indicated to undergo knee replacement in Delhi. Such patients are those with severe ligament instability (absence of ligament function), major bone deformity (varus or valgus greater than 20 degrees), or significant bone loss, explains the orthopaedic surgeon in Delhi.

I’m too young or too old to get a prosthesis. Is this right?

There is no maximum age to undergo surgery. What we assess, in the case of elderly patients, are their clinical conditions, that is, whether they support the procedure.

I have operated on patients over 90 years old with excellent results, without complications. Postoperative mortality is currently low and technology develops daily to make surgery even safer. Therefore, before fearing surgery, seek proper guidance from a trained orthopaedic in Delhi.

As for the younger patient, that is, those under 60 years of age, we prefer to postpone the procedure as much as possible, considering the durability of the prosthesis. After 10 years of the procedure, the number of people whose prosthesis remains functioning properly decreases progressively. As the young have more years to live than the elderly, the chance of the young person needing multiple replacements of the prosthesis is greater, says the orthopaedic doctor in Delhi.

In any case, what we take most into consideration is the patient’s quality of life. If the arthrosis is significantly deteriorating the quality of life, we opt for knee replacement surgery in Delhi. Otherwise, we maintain non-surgical treatment.

How long does a prosthesis last?

Just as your knee wears out, the prosthesis wears out over time. Studies show that the prosthesis lasts well for 10 years in 95% of people. After 20 years, the rate drops to 90%, but there is still a significant amount of people who continue with the prosthesis in good condition.