We take for granted that we can get around, however when osseous rheumatism or physical injury damages our joints, all of a sudden our mobility can be taken away or severely impaired. Even easy physical tasks, such as walking up and back down steps, can become a heavy challenge if not impossible. Discomfort may become associated with the problem and while medication and physical exercise may help, the issue may require surgical intervention.

Medical treatment should be contemplated as a final resort, however undergoing knee surgery to fix and alleviate the damage might be your sole remaining practical option. A knee surgeon will be well placed to correct damage and deformities caused by age, injury or birth imperfections and will employ a range of techniques to gain improved mobility and eliminate joint pain.

An orthopedic surgeon can resurface the worn or damaged bones of the knee (one of the most important joints in your body) and use man-made replacements for the cartilage and bone areas which move and work together. This will reduce and reduce discomfort for most patients and reduce joint stiffness for the great majority of patients. Knee surgery is a commonly undertaken surgery which is well known to surgeons, extraordinarily safe and produces spectacular results for most patients.

One of the best advances in knee surgery has been the entire or total replacement of the knee joint. The first such process took place back in 1968, however since that point the surgery has been refined and perfected to the point where virtually 600,000 knee replacements are undertaken in the US each year with more than 90% and higher chance of success.

The older surgery uses blocks and metal guides to establish where the surgeon must make their surgical incisions and cuts. X-rays are taken before hand to pinpoint the size of the synthetic knee implant the patient requires, and the surgeon’s job is to match these dual variables optimally. It is a testament to the surgical talent of orthopedic surgeons that they are able to do that with a high quality level of confident accuracy however the conventional surgery still relies on a human surgeon’s skill to finely judge this process. As there’s very small margin for a mistake, in a small minority number of patients the balance between the knee implant and placement as it relates to the patient’s own bones and muscle could be slightly out to a degree which is big enough to render the surgery unsuccessful.

This low number of knee replacement failures has fueled the development of surgical techniques which are miles more exact and accurate. Rather than traditional X-rays, a surgeon is now able to assess the shape and size of the necessary implant using 3-dimensional imaging technology which supplies a much closer approximation of the dimensions of the knee implant a patient requires. Nevertheless this on its own is not enough to guarantee success as the surgeon must still make cuts and undertake preparation of the patient’s bone to deal with the implant optimally.

Computers are now used to help in the making of incisions and the preparing of the knee area to receive the implant. Using automated computer assisted navigation provides an exceptionally high level of precision in making cuts and preparing the knee area to house the implant. This delivers for a remarkably high degree of optimal fit, which in its turn means the knee replacement works much more successfully than when employing a conventional procedure. In turn, this ensures greater mobility, reduced recuperation times and much less discomfort concerned in undergoing the knee replacement surgery.

Check out www.OSC-Ortho.com for more info on knee surgery and maintaining mobility.

categories: knee surgery,knee replacement,joint pain,joint replacement,knee surgeons