If your quality of life is seriously diminished and you are in constant pain, joint surgery may be a feasible long-term solution.
Minimally Invasive Joint Replacement Surgery
Total Hip Replacement THR and Total Knee Replacement TKR are very successful surgical treatment for arthritis of the hip and knee respectively.
Over the last several years hip and knee replacement surgery has evolved to a Minimally Invasive technique.
Hip Joint Replacement
Minimally Invasive Hip Joint Replacement involves inserting the hip prosthesis of choice through an incision generally less than 10cms. However depending on the patient’s body habitus, a >10cm incision may still qualify as minimally invasive. There is less muscle cutting and more muscle splitting in a minimally invasive approach compared with a conventional approach.
With a minimally invasive approach there is less blood loss, faster recovery and a more cosmetic scar.
Not all patients are suitable for this approach however. Suitability for this approach will be discussed during the consultation.
Knee Joint replacement
Total Knee Replacement (TKR) has evolved over many years and now most cases involve resurfacing of the ends of the bone after removal of a relatively section of bone, around 9mm from the end of the femur, the top of the tibia and the deep surface of the patella. These surfaces are then clad in metal components, these days often with a metal surface on the femoral component and with a plastic or high density polyethylene bearing between the tibia and the femur. The deep surface of the patella is generally also resurfaced with a polyethylene bearing.
TKR is quite a major procedure, normally undertaken under general anaesthesia. The operation surgery generally takes somewhere in the region of 2 hours from induction of anaesthesia to return to the recovery room. It normally requires a hospital stay of about 2-3 days depending on progress and takes up to 2-3 months for the muscles around the knee to recover fully and for patients to feel the real benefits of surgery.
Shoulder Joint Replacement
Shoulder joint replacement is a surgical procedure performed to replace a damaged shoulder joint with artificial implants. It is usually performed to relieve shoulder pain when the joint is severely damaged by osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, post-traumatic arthritis, rotator cuff tear arthropathy, avascular necrosis (tissue death), fracture and failed former shoulder replacement surgery.
