Surgical Treatment of Knee: Knee Arthroscopy
Within the field of Orthopedic Surgery, the most well-known and common surgical procedure is Arthroscopy of the knee. The operation is performed at an outpatient surgical center or major hospital. The patient is usually provided a general anesthetic, and the procedure takes from 30-45 minutes barring complications.
Patients are on crutches for up to several days, take oral pain medications for less than a week, return to their normal jobs in 2-4 days, and are typically completely recovered in 2-4 weeks (for simple arthroscopic procedures such as chondroplasty, menisectomy, lateral release and loose body removal).
Arthroscopy procedure outcomes vary, but can be predicted based on diagnosis and age. As a general rule, if the patient is 55 or younger with only one problem (such as a torn meniscus, a loose body, a small area of joint surface damage) tend to have a higher chance of successful surgical outcomes.
Patients older than 55 years with greater than one disease process (the most common is torn meniscus with chondral damage ” commonly known as arthritis) have variable outcomes after knee arthroscopy [improved knee probability in 60% range for multiple disease process knees].
The least predictable surgical outcomes are with Arthroscopic Lateral Retinacular Release for patellar tracking problems and Arthroscopic Chondroplasty for arthritis. The best surgical outcomes are after Arthroscopic Medial Menisectomy, Arthroscopic Loose Body Removal, and Arthroscopic Lateral Meniscal repair.
A thought on Diagnostic Arthroscopy: Even in today’s world of high resolution 3T MRI scans, there is still a responsibility for the surgeon to only look inside the knee for diagnostic purposes.
This is done to assess healing of microfracture, healing of meniscal repair, looking for wearing of Total Knee Replacement, healing of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation, assessment of ligament injury (or a new injury or after surgical reconstruction of knee ligament), or when symptoms of the knee are unexplained even after a physical, Xray, history, and knee MRI.
A more detailed report is found the website of Phoenix knee doctor, Dr. Stefan Tarlow.
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