What is knee arthrosis?
Gonarthrosis or osteoarthritis of the knee – is a disease of the knee which restricts the quality of life of patients significantly and is caused by a slow but inexorable deterioration of articular cartilage.
It is precisely due to the degenerative nature of knee gonarthrosis that it is useful to underline that the most correct therapeutic procedure certainly envisages conservative – and minimally invasive – approaches, but also that pain therapy and functional limitation can provide the need for the implantation of a prosthesis in the knee.
Causes and symptoms
The pain and the strong functional limitation are the main symptoms the patient feels and are the most important causes for which they turn to an orthopedic surgeon.
The patient will complain of more significant symptoms in the morning or after a period of inactivity or, again, only during specific physical activities (pain in going up or down stairs, for example).
The importance of specialist visits and diagnosis
The specialist examination is a crucial moment for the diagnosis of gonarthrosis. It is for two different reasons, but they have the same importance.
Obviously, medicine is science. The visit, therefore, is the moment in which a precise diagnosis is reached, and the most exact therapeutic process is set up, in relation to the severity of the pathology and the patient’s clinical history.
However, it is also the critical moment during which a relationship of dialogue and mutual trust is established between patient and surgeon, fundamental to make the healing path as effective as possible.
Knee prosthesis
With the worsening of cartilage degeneration and deformity, in fact, pain can become continuous and oppressive, even at rest, and localization in these cases is difficult.
Undoubtedly, an aggressive attitude in surgery is never advisable. One does not operate at first sign of knee pain, but on the other hand, it is not correct to postpone a prosthetic intervention until the pain is insufferable.
The prosthesis is a surgical reconstruction of the joint, which consists in reconstructing the diseased part of the joint both at the femoral level and at the tibial level and possibly also the patella. The goal of this treatment is to create a joint without pain with good functional activity that allows the patient to return to his daily activities.
There are two types of knee replacement –
- With the total prosthesis, the whole knee is replaced, and some ligaments are removed.
- With the partial prosthesis instead, a part of the knee is replaced, and ligaments such as the anterior cruciate are maintained, fundamental for a natural movement of the knee.
Single-compartment knee prosthesis
Even the partial prosthesis (i.e., the mono-compartmental prostheses) represent a reliable solution. Mono-compartmental prostheses have an indissoluble link with the cruciate ligaments.
Therefore, the planning of a mono-compartmental prosthesis must follow a careful clinical and imaging evaluation, in which the x-ray of knees gives the surgeon information on the deformity, and the magnetic resonance (combined with the clinical assessment) shows if cruciate ligaments are in good health.
They are prostheses in which the invasiveness of the surgical wound is reduced to a minimum, and recovery for the patient is very fast. The patient who has received a partial prosthesis has a quicker recovery, better mobility, and a decidedly lower risk about the onset of a possible infection, considering that the incision is minimally invasive.
Post-operative recovery
The patient is almost immediately subjected to a physiotherapy session, in which he works on two objectives – immediate loading (walking quickly, the day after surgery) and the recovery of range of movement.
Rehabilitation is not a race against time to demonstrate the efficiency of the surgeon, but the timeliness of a dedicated and immediate rehabilitation protocol that allows bringing early and stable results over time.
The best knee replacement surgeon in Gurgaon is Dr. Ashok Rajgopal. He has completed 25,000 knee replacement surgeries and is attached to Fortis Memorial Hospital at Gurgaon. The cost of knee replacement ranges from USD 4000 to 6000 inclusive of five-day stay in the hospital.