Your knee hurts and you have questions on knee replacement as an option.

Dr Nishat Goda, Orthopaedic Surgeon at the K J Somaiya Super-Speciality Centre, answers some of them.

When does it feel like that a person needs the knee replacement surgery?

A long standing knee pain, inability to walk and do daily routine and deformity is the time when person should consider knee replacement.

What is the procedure for knee replacement

A knee replacement surgery is a highly skilled surgery where degenerated cartilage and bone is been replaced with highly engineered joint.

Is there any advancement which happened recently in this field?

There have been many advancement that include:

• Minimal invasive replacement
• Muscle sparing replacement
• Navigated replacement for precise fitting of the joint
• High flexion knees

What are the results of the surgery?

If the surgery is uneventful, the patient is made to walk on the second day after the surgery and can be discharged on the 3rd day.

What will be the duration of physical therapy after the knee replacement?

Ideally physical therapy should be given for a period of 5 days once the patient can walk independently without a walking aid.

What are the precautions patient needs to take after the surgery?

A patient should avoid sitting cross legged for few days once the wound has healed

Will patient need somebody to assist him/her after the discharge?

Yes for 5 days once the patient is independent.

Is surgery safe?

Yes with recent advances surgery is relatively safe.

Will patient need to get knee replaced ever again?

Ideally if a good implant and surgery is done the artificial joint lasts for a long time

What kind of risks it carries?

Infection is an unfortunate dreaded complication, other risk is thromboembolisim

What are the exercises recommended to the patient after the surgery?

Quadriceps and hamstring strengthening ( muscle around the knee)

What is the time a patient takes to recover?

Apart from all claims made, ideally a patient requires minimum of 15 days to recover completely.