Knee Replacement Alternatives

The most important thing to be understood about knee replacement surgery is that it is a functionality enhancing surgery. Therefore, knee-joint replacement is a selective surgery. The degenerative arthritis, called osteoarthritis, affects a large chunk of the world population. It can cause deformities of the knee and extreme pain. The most common deformities caused by osteoarthritis are bow-legged or knock-kneed appearance. The technical names for these deformities are genu varum and genu valgum respectively. These deformities cause a lot of pain leading to a general discomfort. Many people think of going for a joint replacement in order to restore their normal functions. However, there are complications involved as well. Therefore, people turn towards the alternative treatments for joint replacement which are tried before going in for the replacement surgery.

Alternatives to Complete Knee Joint Replacement
Not every patient who suffers from osteoarthritis is a good candidate for joint replacement. The factor that may make a patient ineligible for surgical joint replacement are age, declining health, etc. Such patients often start looking for alternatives to surgery. You will be surprised to know about various alternatives available. Let's see what can some of them are:

Exercise: Exercise helps maintain flexibility in the joints and, at the same time, also helps in preserving muscle support. Due to pain in the arthritic knee, you will not be able to undertake a strenuous exercise regime. However, the option of walking everyday is not ruled out. The best way is to walk in water which will take the pressure off your knee and, at the same time, will help in subsiding the effects of degeneration. If you are not a big fan of walking, you can choose any low impact exercise like yoga, bicycling, etc. The added benefit of exercising is that it will also aid in weight loss. Obesity is often the cause of arthritis in many people. There are also many knee-specific exercises which can bring relief to your condition.

Cartilage Transplantation: With the advancement in medical sciences, healthy cartilage from one part of the knee, which does not bear the weight, can be transplanted to the area where the weight-bearing cartilage is damaged. This is a good alternative when the area of damage is small. In cases where the majority of the joint surface is damaged, this cannot be an ideal alternative.

Osteotomy: If the problem in the knee-joint is due to the imperfect alignment of the knee-joint, osteotomy can be an alternative to replacement surgery. In this, the bone above or below the knee is cut to re-align the knee. For this, the patient will have to spend a couple of days at the hospital and it may take about 6 to 8 weeks to heal.

Arthroscopy: This is a minimal invasive surgical procedure and only a small incision is made on the knee. A tiny instrument is inserted in the knee cartilage and the damaged cartilage is trimmed and smoothed out which helps in reducing the inflammation. If required, the knee lining is also trimmed, which further helps in reducing inflammation. In this procedure, there is no hospital stay required and the patient can go home the same day.

Specialized Braces: This is an alternative to knee-joint replacement in patients who do not have damaged cartilages. These specialized braces are so designed that they transfer the pressure of the knee to the area which has healthy cartilages. The shifting of the pressure causes less pain.

Knee Fusion: If all the above given methods have failed and joint replacement surgery becomes inevitable, you should not lose hope because there is still one option which can be considered. This option is knee fusion or arthrodesis. In this process, the ends of the femur bone and the tibia bone are cut flat and then the ends are pressed together in such a way, that the leg is slightly bent. The bones are held together with the help of pins, plates or screws. After a period of time these bones grow and merge together and hence, the name knee fusion. The only drawback of this process is, that the knees become straight and cannot be bent. The patient can walk without pain, but with a limp.

Medication: Inflammation in the knee-joint can also be reduced with the help of anti-inflammatory medications. There are a number of medications available that are specifically made to treat inflammation in the knee-joint. Localized injections to the knee-joint are also given in case of a degenerative knee problem. These injections are effective for several weeks.

We have just seen that there are knee replacement alternatives, which means that you should not lose hope. The most important point is that you should not suffer from pain. You should talk to your orthopedic and choose the right treatment for your condition as soon as possible rather than ignoring and procrastinating about the treatment.