Minimally Invasive Total Knee Replacement

If your arthritis has caused a lot of damage to your knee joint then it may be that you require surgery. Minimally invasive total knee replacement is one option and it is becoming a popular choice with many surgical teams across the country. This option will not be available for every patient and even those who are due for this procedure may have to have an open arthroplasty if things seem too difficult laproscopically.

Benefits of Minimally Invasive Total Knee Replacement

The reason why many surgeons like to now perform minimally invasive total knee replacement is that there are a number of advantages to this technique. It means that instead of opening up the whole knee there will only be much smaller incisions. Here are just some of the benefits of minimally invasive total knee replacement surgery over a more traditional arthroplasty.

• The fact that the incisions are smaller should mean that there is less risk of infection following the surgery.
• Smaller incisions means a lot less scaring and this is can be important. Some total knee replacements don’t work out because of excessive scarring that means the individual cannot bend their knee comfortable. This is far less likely to happen with minimally invasive total knee replacement.
• In most instances the recovery time from the minimally invasive surgery will be a lot faster. This means that patients can get back to normal living a lot faster and find the procedure a lot less stressful.

As you can see there are some good benefits to be had when surgeons decide to do things minimally invasively.

Why Won't My Surgeon Offer Minimally Invasive Total Knee Replacement Surgery?

Considering the many benefits that there are to having the surgery done with smaller incisions you might wonder why it isn’t always offered. If your surgeon hasn’t offered you minimally invasive total knee replacement you might think that this is a bit unfair. Well, there are some really good reasons why this option might not be offered. The most usual one being that you are not a suitable candidate for such a procedure.

There are a number of things that could be preventing your surgeon from offering to do the procedure with small incisions. If your arthritis has caused extensive damage then it could be that he needs to more fully open the knee to see what is going on. Sometimes there is just too much work to be done for the minimally invasive option to be offered. In some instances you will have gone down to have minimally invasive total knee replacement surgery but the surgeon has needed to change this to a bigger incision.

If your surgeon does decide to go ahead with the minimally invasive option then hopefully you will be back on your feet a lot sooner. This way of doing things can reduce risks and hopefully as the technology improves it will be possible in more and more cases. It is hoped that in a few years all surgery will be performed using tiny holes.