Knee Surgery

Arthritis of the knee is damage to the articular cartilage of the joint. This often leads to pain, stiffness and ultimately loss of function of the knee.

There are a variety of non-operative treatments that can relief your symptoms of knee arthritis. It is good to keep as active as possible however you may be required to limit certain activities that exacerbate the pain.

Eventually, at a time often difficult to determine, non surgical treatment measures may not provide adequate symptomatic relief and a surgical solution may have to be considered.

There are three types of surgical treatments that can be considered if non surgical management regimes do not control your symptoms.

The options are knee arthroscopy, an osteotomy around the knee or a type of knee replacement.

Knee Arthroscopy

A knee arthroscopy is often referred to as “keyhole surgery”. Using an arthroscope and special instruments the inside of the knee is examined through two or sometimes three small incisions around the knee.

In certain patient this can give long lasting relief of arthritic symptoms and delay the requirement for more extensive surgery.

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Total Knee Replacement

Total knee replacement is the resurfacing of the bones in your knee joint with a prosthesis (artificial knee joint).

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High Tibial Osteotomy

In young patients where knee replacement my not be ideal and in patients who are physically very active and require to kneel for their work a high tibial osteotomy may be indicated.

Depending on the deformity of the leg being either knock kneed or bowlegged the bony cut (osteotomy) is done at the distal femur bone or the proximal tibia bone.

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Unicompartmental Knee Replacement

If only one compartment of the knee is osteoarthritic (most often the inside or medial compartment) you may be a candidate for a unicompartment knee replacement. This is effectively a partial knee replacement of the arthritic compartment of the knee.

To be a suitable candidate the bowed leg deformity has to be correctable and the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee has to be intact. You should be able to almost fully straighten your knee and you should not have any inflammatory condition of the knee. (for example, rheumatoid arthritis).

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Revision Total Knee Replacement

A knee replacement will eventually fail. The majority of knee replacements will last between 15 to 20 years.

Knee replacements can fail for a number of reasons, the most common being, infection, aseptic loosening and instability. Fractures around the knee replacement are also becoming more common.

Revision knee surgery involves the removal of the failed implant and replacement by a new knee replacement.

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