Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 13: “Not every patient who has arthritis of the knee needs a replacement. Surgery is indicated when conservative treatments fail and functional disability is significant”, says Dr Neeraj Bansal, Knee and Hip Surgeon at Fortis Hospital, Ludhiana.
“The decision to do a knee replacement surgery is not simply made on an X-ray picture”, he said, adding that it is a complex decision made on the basis of clinical condition of the knee, functional requirements, overall physiologic status and mechanical knee damage. The result after surgery is directly proportional to the correct choice of patient and procedure. This aspect is as important as good surgical technique for a satisfactory result, he stated.
Before going for knee replacement, discuss the pros and cons of the procedure, the implant that would be used, its history as well as the technique. In knee replacement, alignment and positioning of the implants are important, he added.
“A poorly aligned knee replacement may allow good function, running and full knee bending, but may end up with early wear of the components and need for revision”, said Dr Bansal, who prefers computer navigated techniques over conventional methods.
Also, instead of replacing the entire tissue, there are tissue preserving techniques that give better results for the patients without damaging the existing tissues, said Dr Bansal, adding that with more patients demanding the latest techniques, orthopaedic surgeons are bound to use better techniques.
“Fortis Hospital Ludhiana, trained nursing staff and the physiotherapy unit is amongst the best in India. The Department of Advance Orthopaedics at Fortis Ludh-iana was performing joint replacements since one and half years from now. Some latest advancement in joint replacement surgery is the minimally-invasive surgery, stitch less surgery where the size of incision is half the size of conventional incision, which is more cosmetic. Some new hip prostheses are surface hip replacement prosthesis where the bone cut is less, hence the original bone is saved as only the surface is replaced All kinds of joint replacements like knee, hip and shoulder were being successfully done”, he stated.
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