Knee Replacement

Knee joint is one of the important and sensitive joints of the human body. It joints the femur and tibia bones of human body.

It is very important joint as it supports the entire weight of the body as well as accepts and transfers the biomechanical load between the femur, tibia, patella and fibula bones.

Some carelessness or severe injuries can makes a severe damage to the knee joint. It is very difficult and painful even to perform the simple task of walking or climbing the stairs with the injured knee.

In the situation the doctor can suggest medication, slight change in activities or walking supports, if all that doesn’t make a difference one can go for a knee replacement surgery.

Knee replacement surgery

The knee replacement surgery is among one of the achievement of the orthopedic science. The first knee replacement surgery was performed in 1968. Since than, there are a lot of advances in the surgical material and techniques that increased its effectiveness. Different steps of that are included in the knee replacement surgery are:

The orthopaedic evaluation

The orthopedic evaluation includes the gathering of information about the patient’s history, a physical examination to know the knee motion, stability and leg alignment, an X-ray to determine the extent of damage, a blood test, MRI, bone scan etc. with the help of these tests the surgeon decides weather the patient requires the surgery or not.

The surgery

After admitting to the hospital the patient is evaluated by the anesthesia team. Two types of anesthesia are: general anesthesia in which patient is unconscious during the whole process, the spinal epidural anesthesia in which the legs are anesthetized. The knee surgery procedure takes two hours. The surgeon replaces the damaged cartilage and bone with the new metal and plastic material to restore the alignment and function of the knee.

There are many types of designs and materials currently available for knee replacement. The femoral components are made of a highly polished strong metal, the tibial components are made of durable plastic and the patellar component are made of plastic.

Complications after surgery

There are many complications about which a patient must be aware: these are knee joint infection, blood clots in the leg veins, wearing of the bearing surface or loosening of the components etc.

Precautions:

Exercise after the surgery is very important. It should be performed in the supervision of the surgeon. It includes the slow walking, sitting, standing and walking downstairs.

After the knee replacement the patient should take the preventive antibiotics for the first two years. After two years the doctor decides weather the patient should take the antibiotics or not.

One should take care of the knee joint as it is one of the sensible joint and any damage can cause the serious problem.