Considering knee replacement surgery can bring up a lot of questions and plenty of misconceptions.
In this Consultant Q&A video, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Christopher Buckle addresses three key topics: common myths about knee replacements, whether age is an important factor in deciding on surgery, and what knee arthritis looks like on an X-ray.
Covered in this video:
- Common myths about knee replacements
- Is age an important factor in deciding on when to have knee replacement surgery?
- What does knee arthritis look like on an X-ray?
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Transcript
Q1. Common misconceptions about knee replacements
Common misconceptions around knee replacements from patients often include the operation is a very large procedure, replacing significant amounts of the knee joint itself, where in fact, I find it's reassuring for patients to know that the operation is more of a resurfacing procedure, where only a few millimeters of bone are removed from the end of the knee and replaced with metal and plastic. The operation itself can take around an hour, and most patients find they're out of hospital within a couple of days after their surgery.
Q2. Is age an important factor when considering a knee replacement?
Absolutely. Like all other types of joint replacements, knee replacements can wear over the course of your life. This can require redo operations to replace the worn-out joint. This occurs more frequently the younger you are and the longer you live, and the higher your activity levels. Importantly, though, this has to be countered against living with intrusive pain affecting your quality of life. And so, with careful counseling, knee replacement surgery can be appropriate.
Q3. What does knee arthritis look like on an X-ray?
This is an X-ray that clearly shows knee arthritis. It's a very useful investigation to be able to understand the cause of your knee pain, and arthritis can be clearly diagnosed on X-ray without the need for more advanced imaging. What we can see here is the bones on the inner aspect of the knee have come in contact with each other, where they have lost the normal cartilage on the end of the bone. The outer surface of the knee still has some space left between the bones where that cartilage remains. So this patient has arthritis affecting the inner aspect of their knee only.
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