What Is Knee Surgery?
Knee surgery includes any surgical procedure performed over the knee joint, its muscles ligaments or other surrounding soft tissue. Till a few years ago, knee surgery was performed using an open method which required extensive skin incisions and a long recovery period. Over the years medical technology has advanced. Minimal invasive methods are used to perform arthroscopic knee surgery in Mumbai.
Knee surgery may be performed to repair muscular tear, ligament tear or removal of inflammatory and infectious debris accumulated within the knee joint.
What Are The Various Indications Of Knee Surgery?
Surgery is never the first choice of treatment for knee complaints. Medication and physiotherapy often help to overcome moderate pain and stiffness of the knee joints. However, there are some specific indications which point towards the necessity of knee surgery.
The indications of knee surgery are mentioned below:
- Recurrent Knee Joint Complaints
People may experience knee complaints recurrently despite no significant trigger factor. Aged people may experience that their knee joint movements are restricted and painful. These complaints may occur without any overuse or overstrain of the knee joint. X-Ray of the knee may reveal degeneration within the joint.
- Progressive Increase in Knee Joint Symptoms
In some cases not only do the symptoms of knee joints keep recurring, but they also keep on increasing in intensity. This occurs in case of degenerative diseases of bones, muscles, ligaments or tendons.
- No Response To Medication
Patients and doctors may not think of surgery as the immediate method of treatment for any knee joint complaints. The complaints may be manageable with medication like anti-inflammatory agents, pain relief medicines or steroids. But some patients may not find any relief even with the most advanced medical treatment. Such cases are ideal to undergo knee surgery.
- Incapacitating Injury To The Knee
Perforating or blunt injury to the knee joint may cause the muscles, tendons or ligaments of the knee joint to be torn. The knee joint itself may get damaged too. These injuries hamper the knee joint functions severely and may even lead to further health complications like infection within and around the knee joint. Tearing of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is one of the commonest knee joint injuries. Consulting with some of the top ACL reconstruction surgeons in Mumbai is helpful in such cases.
- Arthritis
Arthritis is a degenerative condition that could affect any joint in the body. Knee joint arthritis may occur due to excessive strain over the joint, infection within the joint or due to autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid tendency. Excessive degeneration and severe immobility of the knee joint may develop in some cases, and they can only be treated surgically.
Almost all knee surgeries are performed using arthroscopy technique nowadays. This minimally invasive technique has shortened the time duration of orthopedic surgeries to a great extent. The post-surgical recovery period is also shorter and does not require as much precaution as indicated after open knee joint surgery.
Surgery is one of the mainstream and relatively permanent types of knee pain treatment in Mumbai.