Hyderabad: More than 25 per cent of patients suffering from severe knee arthritis do not require total knee replacement surgery. Only replacing the damaged or diseased part of the knee improves their quality of life. It also helps do away with risks of infections, swelling of legs and pain which lasts for six months to a year.
Dr Udai Prakash, senior joint replacement surgeon, said, “Partial knee replacement is a choice which must be given to patients. Many a times, patients come with severe arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and injuries to the knee where only one part of the knee is damaged. Replacing that one part by a partial knee replacement is found to help. Retaining a natural part and allowing it to function normally is good for the body.”
Dr Prakash insists that patients must be given the option of going in for partial or total knee replacement. Orthopaedic surgeons opting for total knee replacement surgeries state that the incidence of a second surgery is high in case of partial knee replacements.
Dr S. Sreenivasa Reddy, senior orthopaedic surgeon, said total knee replacement reduces the chances of a revision surgery, which is very high in partial knee replacements.
“Those who are suffering from severe arthritis do not find much of an improvement in terms of pain. But in case of total knee replacement they are able to get back to work within six months to a year,” he said.
A Lancet survey in July 2014 gave backed partial knee replacements. The researchers after studying more than 1 lakh people who had undergone knee replacement found that those who had undergone total knee replacement were twice as likely to have a blood clot, heart attack or deep infection and were three times as likely to have a stroke compared to those having partial replacement.
