Considering a Knee Replacement? 5 Signs It Might Be Time

The biggest and one of the most used joints you have, your knees connect both parts of your legs and help to support your overall weight. If you’re doing anything while sitting or standing, your knees are functioning to provide strength, mobility, and stability. 

This hinge joint, which is made up of the femur, tibia, and patella, along with cartilage, ligaments, and muscles, is crucial to things you do all the time. Problems like knee pain are all too common, stemming from mild issues or any number of underlying conditions, but often they only need conservative means to treat. 

When does knee replacement surgery become necessary to help manage knee conditions? Southwest Orthopedic Associates, along with Dr. Joseph Daniels and his team, can help you and other residents of Fort Worth, Texas, determine when it might be time to undergo this surgery.

Common reasons for knee pain

The work we put our knees through over time can lead to several issues that cause pain, including:

• Arthritis: several forms of arthritis cause pain, such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and gout

• Meniscal tears: a tear in the knee cartilage often happens in athletes and older adults

• Stretched ligaments: damage to any of the four ligaments in each knee can be painful

• Prepatellar bursitis: swelling in the fluid-filled sacs that provide this joint with cushion from impacts

• Patellar tendinitis: when the tendon that binds your kneecap to the top of your tibia becomes inflamed

• Fractures: often caused by a direct blow to the kneecap

• Dislocations: twisting your knees or a sharp blow to them can lead to a partial shift out of the joint

When surgery is the best option

Not every knee problem needs surgery, but here are some symptoms that indicate it might be the right course of action:

1. Conservative treatments aren’t helping

When pain medications, physical therapy, and injections stop being effective in managing knee pain and other issues, it might be time to get surgery.

1. Difficulty with routine tasks

If knee problems cause enough issues that dressing yourself, walking, bathing, and other basic tasks are too difficult, come in to get it replaced.

2. You need help walking

Use of a cane or walker because walking under your own weight is really hard means considering surgery.

3. You have severe pain all the time

If intense pain is present at all times of the day, surgery can help.

4. Deformation in the joint

When injury, arthritis, or other causes lead to bowing of the knees or other deformities, knee replacement may be the best option to correct them.

What to expect

If it’s time to get your knee replaced, we can do it in a nearby facility or hospital. First, we apply an anesthetic to let you sleep through the procedure. Once that’s accomplished, we make small incisions close to the joint and remove the damaged bone and tissue in the joint. Next, we place the prosthetic, which can be made of ceramic, metal, or plastic.

After the surgery, the incisions are closed with surgical glue and bandaged, and you’re moved to recovery and observed. When you go home depends on the extent of the joint damage; and you need someone to drive you home.

Knee replacement surgery is highly effective and has a very high success rate, so if you need it, make an appointment with Dr. Daniels and the team at Southwest Orthopedic Associates.