Knee Replacement in India

Knee replacement known as arthroplasty or knee resurfacing, helps to restore the weight-bearing façade of damaged or diseased knee joints.

Knee replacement prevents pain and restores mobility and it helps patients whose knees have degenerated due to osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or post-traumatic arthritis.

Over 600,000 knee replacement surgeries have been carried out in the United States and most of the patients are under 50 to 80 years.

If patients follow the instructions for knee care, it will function well even after 15 years and it lasts 20 years with better care.

Why Knee Replacement is Performed?

There are three common reasons for the knee replacement, includes:

• Osteoarthritis: It is an age-related illness caused by the normal wear and tear of the knee joints and it mostly affects individuals over 50 years but in some cases, it affects younger people as well. Osteoarthritis is caused by inflammation, breakdown, and the eventual loss of cartilage in the joints, because with time cartilage is removed, and bone rubs together which causes pain.
• Rheumatoid arthritis: It is also called inflammatory arthritis, appears when the membrane around the knee joints becomes thick and inflamed.
• Post-traumatic arthritis: It appears due to severe knee injury when the bones around the knee break or the ligament tear and affect the knee cartilage.

How the Knee Replacement Procedure is Done?

People with arthritis go through knee replacement, and if you want to learn about the surgery procedure then here is the process:

Before the Surgery

• Healthcare providers will ask you to stop any medications or dietary products you take after midnight on the day of surgery.
• You must change your clothes and wear a hospital gown when you go for the surgery.
• You will get general anesthesia so that you won't feel any pain during the surgery.
• Surgeons will also inject numbing medicine around nerves to prevent pain after your surgery.

During the procedure

• Now, the surgeon will make an incision over the knee and remove the diseased and damaged bone and cartilage, leaving healthy bone intact.
• And then implant the part into the thighbone, shinbone, and kneecap.
• This procedure takes 1 to 2 hours to complete.

After the procedure

• After the surgery, you will rest in a recovery area for a short period, the stay depends on the condition.
• There are risk of blood clots after the surgery so to prevent it, you have to move and walk soon after the surgery.
• You have to wear elastic compression stockings on your lower legs that help keep blood from pooling in the leg veins and reduce the chance that clots will form.
• You will get blood thinners prescribed by the doctors.

Diagnose and Evaluation for Knee Replacement

• Medical history. Doctors will ask you for all the information about your general health, and the extent of your knee pain, and your ability.
• Physical examination. Physical examination will help to find out about knee motion, stability, strength, and overall leg alignment.
• X-rays. X-rays help to determine the severity of damage and deformity of your knee.
• Other tests. Blood tests or advanced imaging including magnetic resonance imaging MRI scan might be needed to determine the condition.

Who are the Candidates?

• Candidates with severe pain or stiffness that prevents them from carrying out everyday tasks such as going upstairs, walking, getting up from a chair, etc.
• Patients with continuous knee pain even while sleeping or resting.
• Patients with Chronic knee inflammation and swelling.

List of Hospitals for Knee Replacement in India

• Artemis Hospital
• BLK Max Super Speciality Hospital
• Fortis Memorial Research Institute
• Indraprastha Apollo Hospital
• Aware Gleneagles Global Hospital
• Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket
• Fortis Malar Hospital, Chennai
• Accord Superspeciality Hospital
• Amrita Hospital, Faridabad
• Amrita Hospital, Kochi

List of Doctors for Knee Replacement in India

• Dr. Subhash Jangid
• Dr. Ashok Rajgopal
• Dr. Vivek Mittal
• Dr. Krishnamoorthy K
• Dr. Vinay S. Joshi
• Dr. Pradeep B. Bhosale
• Dr. Ramneek Mahajan
• Dr. Neeraj Verma
• Dr. Vinod Sukhija
• Dr. Deepak Chaudhary

Complications 

• Blood clots
• Infection
• Wound and bleeding
• Persistent pain
• Blood transfusion
• Metal hypersensitivity
• Nerve or neurovascular damage
• Knee stiffness and loss of motion

Conclusion 

Knee replacement has shown the best clinical outcomes in patients because it is safe and complications occur less than 1% in patients. The replacement knees last between 10 to 15 years, but in some cases, replacement is needed after 10 years.

The stay in the hospital is short but the recovery from the knee replacement takes months. Furthermore, an interval of physical rehabilitation is important before full recovery.