TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT

What is Knee Joint Replacement Surgery?

Rough and damaged cartilage surfaces in cases of knee arthritis are replaced with smooth artificial components, while most of the original knee ligaments are left intact. External appearance of the knee remains unchanged, except for the surgical scar. This surgery needs a large clean operation theatre with modern equipment and infrastructure.

KNEE ARTHRITIS DIAGRAM

NORMAL KNEE DIAGRAM

Who needs Knee Replacement Surgery?

Patients suffering from painful, disabling arthritis in the knee need to undergo knee joint replacement surgery. Limited walking distance, night pain, severe deformity, difficulty in performing daily activities are indications for this surgery

What to expect after knee replacement surgery?

Most of our patients start walking the day after surgery and feel comfortable to go home in 2-3 days. Almost everybody can bend the knee to 120 deg and slimmer people can bend even better. They can sit cross-legged if required, though we do not encourage this. The knee deformity gets corrected, the leg becomes straight, and all patients find tremendous improvement in walking and daily activities because of the operation. Most patients stop using walking stick within a month. Knee function continues to improve for a year after surgery.

SITTING CROSS-LEGGED AFTER TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT

SCARS AFTER KNEE REPLACEMENT ON BOTH SIDES

How successful is knee replacement surgery?

Overall, this has been a very successful and rewarding surgery. We do not recommend this operation for every patient of osteoarthritis. We offer this surgery only to select patients when our experts feel sure that the knee is badly damaged and the patient will benefit significantly from the surgery. Once they recover from the operation and experience its benefits, all our patients feel happy that they underwent the surgery. In the long term, more than 90% of patients do well for 15 to 20 years without the need for any further surgery. Hence, the chance of requiring a second operation after knee replacement in reality is very low

XRAYS AFTER KNEE REPLACEMENT ON BOTH SIDES

The Economics of Knee Replacement

Once considered a luxury for the elite, it is now well within the reach of the common man. The overall approximate expense for a single knee replacement ranges from 1.7 to 1.9 lakh rupees in the economy class of most hospitals, including high quality imported implants and medicines. Although many patients recover well on their own, some may need 5 to 8 sessions of physiotherapy. Simple inexpensive tablets are required for 3 to 6 months. Working patients can return to work in 4 to 6 weeks