Fat Loss 4 Idiots Secret

Friday, June 12, 2009

Surgical Treatment of Knee: Knee Arthroscopy

By Dr. Stefan Tarlow

The most common surgical procedure in Orthopedic Surgery is Knee Arthroscopy. The operation is performed at a hospital or outpatient surgical center. The patient is usually administered a general anesthetic. The procedure usually takes 30-45 minutes.

Patients are on crutches for a day or less, need to take oral pain medications for less than a week, return to their normal desk jobs in several days, and are completely recovered in 2-4 weeks (for simple arthroscopic procedures such as loose body removal, chondroplasty, menisectomy, and lateral release).

Arthroscopy procedure outcomes vary, but can be predicted based on diagnosis and age. As a general rule, if the patient is 55 or younger with only one problem (such as a torn meniscus, a loose body, a small area of joint surface damage) tend to have a higher chance of successful surgical outcomes.

Patients older than 55 years with greater than one disease process (the most common is torn meniscus with chondral damage " commonly known as arthritis) have variable outcomes after knee arthroscopy [improved knee probability in 60% range for multiple disease process knees].

The best surgical outcomes are after Arthroscopic Medial Menisectomy, Arthroscopic Lateral Meniscal repair and Arthroscopic Loose Body removal. The least predictable surgical outcomes are with Arthroscopic Chondroplasty for arthritis and Arthroscopic Lateral Retinacular Release for patellar tracking problems.

An explanation of Diagnostic Arthroscopy: Even with the technology of high resolution 3T MRI scans, there is still a responsibility for the surgeon to look only inside the knee for diagnostic purposes.

This is done to assess healing of microfracture, healing of meniscal repair, looking for wearing of Total Knee Replacement, healing of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation, assessment of ligament injury (or a new injury or after surgical reconstruction of knee ligament), or when symptoms of the knee are unexplained even after a physical, Xray, history, and knee MRI.

A more in-depth explanation on the topic of knee arthroscopy can be found on the website of Dr. Stefan Tarlow, a renowned Phoenix knee doctor. - 17274

About the Author:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home