Unicondylar Knee Replacement Surgery In India
A unicondylar knee replacement replaces only half of the knee joint. It is performed if the damage is limited to one side of the joint only with the remaining part of the knee joint being relatively spared. It is now possible for the surgeon to replace only that area of the knee joint which is severely damaged.
However, even with only half of the joint destroyed, many surgeons prefer doing a total knee replacement believing this is a better procedure than the half-knee (unicondylar) replacement. But equally, there are surgeons who believe it is more appropriate to perform a unicondylar knee in the right circumstance.
Unicondylar knee replacement is a useful procedure for unicompartmental osteoarthritis. It provides lasting pain relief in the middle aged patient who has to wait for a total knee replacment. The quality of pain relief is better than that from a high tibial osteotomy
Unicondylar replacment or total knee replacment ?
Actually there is no overlap as these are indicated for two different subsets of patients. The unicondylar knee replacment is ideal for the younger patient in the 40’s or 50’s with unicompartmental arthritis and this could be the first knee replacment for this patient. It could also be the last knee replacment for the very elderly patient after 80. patients in the 60’s or 70’s with tricompartmental arthritis are better off with a total knee replacement.
Osteotomy or Unicondylar knee replacement Surgery in india
Again there is no overlap between these extremely good operations. The active robust man who is working is better with an osteotomy whereas the sedentary lady is better off with an unicondylar knee replacement
Unicondylar Knee Replacements have been performed since the early 1970’s with mixed success. Over the last 25 years implant design, instrumentation and surgical technique have improved markedly making it a very successful procedure for unicompartmental arthritis. Recent advances allow us to perform this through a smaller incision and therefore is not as traumatic to the knee making recovery quicker.
Total Knee Replacement surgery replaces the ends of the femur (thigh bone) and tibia (shin bone) with plastic inserted between them and usually the patella (knee cap).
Minimally invasive UKA is reliable and effective for the treatment of isolated medial or lateral knee arthrosis. It offers a decreased morbidity, surgical option that satisfies patients, improves function, and has an economic advantage over TKR as a result of reduced implant cost, decreased acute hospitalization, lower transfusion incidence, lower complication rates, and the reduced need for subacute rehabilitation and outpatient physical therapy. Further economic advantages exist in that resurfacing type unicondylar components can be revised with primary total knee components, effectively eliminating the need for costly revision knee prostheses in most patients. Unicondylar procedures have a finite survivorship. Younger, heavier, or more active patients should be advised that the effective period for their implant may be shorter than the 10 years that the average patient experiences
