Knee Replacement Surgery and Alternative Treatments

Total knee replacement or TKR or Total Knee Arthroscopy is a surgery for replacing an arthritis knee with artificial joint. The artificial joint of knee is known as prostheses.
The older patients with severe knee pain usually go for this procedure. The knee replacement surgery helps them improve their functional mobility.
ead to serious knee problems.

  • The disorder of the connective tissues.
  • Other problems may also include being overweight or overuse of the knee joint.

    • Problems Arising Because of Arthritis Knee

    • The excessive bone or spurs can build up around the knee joint edges.
    • There is irregularity in joint bone, which the Sioux Falls orthopedic surgeon can see in an X-ray image.
    • The swelling of the thick arthritis knee.
    • The absence of cartilage lining or its damage or inflammation.
    • This may also signify presence of arthritis at a particular stage.

    Why Go for Knee Replacement Surgery?

    The disease knee osteoarthritis poorly impacts the quality of a patient’s life. It becomes very difficult to take a few steps up the ladder, sit down for a while or walk briskly.
    The aim of the knee replacement surgery is to help overcome pain and bring relief to the patient.

    However, you must not directly consider opting for surgery of the knee. You must first look into other available options.

    Let us first look at other options before you can consider getting a surgery of your knee.

    Try Losing Weight

    Weight loss is another way of improving your overall fitness and overcoming knee problems. Sometimes, the knee may swell because of extra weight.

    Use of Nutritional Supplements

    You can try using different nutritional supplements on the advice of your doctor only. The nutritional supplements help repair cartilage, tendons and ligaments. The nutritional supplements help stimulate signals necessary to heal damaged tissues.
    Some of the nutritional supplements produce extra synovial fluid which acts as cushion. The added cushion within the knee joint helps relieve pain and overcome inflammation related problems.

    An important benefit of using nutritional supplements is regulation of the enzymes. These enzymes help breakdown the new cartilage and reduce inflammation. There is an analgesic effect because of the enzyme release.

    Physiotherapy and Exercise

    Physiotherapy is another great way of reducing the knee pain. There are different benefits that patients can have by relying upon physiotherapy and exercise.

    Let us have a look at the ways in which physiotherapy can help.

    • The use physiotherapy helps overcome knee pain. The exercises help improve the strength of the muscles. The physiotherapy has a positive effect on the entire body and can also help stabilize lumbar spine.
    • The problem of obesity is evident in all of the United States. More than one third of or 35% US adults are overweight as per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Physiotherapy also helps overcome obesity and makes it easy to enjoy an active lifestyle. In some cases physiotherapy also helps overcome issues which relate to tendonitis and sore knees.
    • There is a range of different exercises that you can perform to overcome the knee pain. Some of the typical exercises that orthopedic surgery doctors recommend include hamstring stretch, calf stretch, straight leg raise, quad set, seated hip march, pillow squeeze, and heel raise.

      • Oral Medication

      Let us have a look at the popular oral medication choices.

      Gout Medications

      There are some medicines typically prescribed for gout or high levels of uric acid. This increase in levels of uric acid in the blood can result in serious joint pain and inflammation. These medications take care of the inflammation and pain. There are other medicines which reduce pain. People with gout and pain may be required to take both the medicines.

      Corticosteroids

      Corticosteroids are quick acting medicines which control inflammation in the body. Sometimes the inflammation in knee is not an isolated condition. There may exist a condition result in inflammation of all joints. In such scenarios the doctor may prescribe the patient to use oral corticosteroids. These medications help overcome the inflammation due to systematic forms of arthritis. In such cases the doctor may ask the patient to use oral corticosteroids.

      Anti-Rheumatoid Drugs

      When the doctor recommends DMARDs or anti-rheumatoid drugs for knee pain, they do not have a direct effect. The knee pain causes differ from one patient to another. However, the use of anti-rheumatoid drugs helps reduce the knee pain. Sh DMARDs may be used for overcoming chronic knee pain.
      The DMARDs help overcome joint pain by blocking inflammation. It is important to get DMARDs or else it will only result in increased knee joint pain. Your orthopedic doctor will look into different factors before recommending a particular medicine of pain relief for knee.

      Biological Response Modifiers

      There is another way of treating rheumatoid arthritis too. The use of biological response modifiers are prescribed by orthopedic physician to patients whose knee does not respond to DMARDs. The biological response modifiers drugs including Abatacept, Adalimumab, Adalimumab-atto, Anakinra, Infliximab, and Tofacitinib among others.

      Procedure for Knee Replacement Surgery

      In some cases surgery may be the best pain relief in the long run. If other methods of pain treatment for knee fail, the patient may have to undergo knee replacement surgery.

      The Procedure

      The orthopedic surgery doctor will need to take exact measures of the disease affected area of the knee bone. The surgeon will have to reshape the bone in order to make space for the implant.

      The surgeon usually builds the artificial implant inside the knee. The idea is to create separate components to keep the knee joint as flexible as possible.

      In the next step of knee replacement surgery, the surgeon will make an incision to have access to the patella. The traditional knee replacement surgery involved a long 8 to 10 inches incision. Thanks to advanced in surgical technology, the incision size is reduced to 4 to 6 inches. In some cases the doctor may need to make a bigger incision. It entirely depends on the type of surgery required.

      Upon opening of the knee, the surgeon can see the patella or kneecap. The surgeon will rotate the patella to view the area which needs surgical operation.

      The orthopedic surgeon will first resurface the femur bone, commonly known as thigh bone. The surgeon will make precise cuts using special instruments. The orthopedic doctor will remove the damaged cartilage or bone from the femur and resurface it for the artificial knee.

      The orthopedic surgeon will attach the metal fermor to the end of the femur. The orthopedic surgeon will use bone cement for sealing the artificial component in place.

      Once the orthopedic surgeon resurfaces the femur, they will resurface the tibia too. The surgeon will remove the damaged bone and cartilage on tibia and also reshape it for fitting the metal and plastic tibial parts.

      The orthopedic surgeon will also cement the bone to secure the femur in place. The placement of a polyethylene insert will help provide support and stability to the knee during bends.

      The surgeon will flatten the patella by adding plastic component and cement it with the bone.

      After completion of the procedure, the surgeon will close incision using stitches and bandage it. The doctor may ask the patient to bend their knee to see if the implant is a proper fit.

      Get in touch with your bone doctor at Sioux Falls Orthopedics to know more and if knee replacement surgery is right for you or not.