Joint Replacement
Total knee replacement is reserved for the most severe and recalcitrant forms of osteoarthritis. When other forms of treatment fail or when patients are unlikely to succeed with lesser therapies, the last option to treat defective cartilage is to replace all or part of the joint. In knee joint replacement, the worn out surfaces of the knee are resurfaced with metal and plastic, replacing the poorly functioning natural joint with new surfaces that slide together smoothly. The dysfunctional joint is removed and pain is relieved. Total knee replacement is considered a relatively routine surgery with a 95% success rate at 20 years. There are more than 300,000 total knee replacements in the United States each year. The average patient age is between 65 and 75. Of these surgeries, approximately 80% are unilateral (only one knee replaced) and 20% are bilateral. Interestingly, women undergo the procedure more often than men, making up 60% of the patient population.
Read more about this topic: Knee Cartilage Replacement Therapy
Famous quotes containing the words joint and/or replacement:
“I conjure thee, and all the oaths which I
And thou have sworn to seal joint constancy,
Here I unswear, and overswear them thus,
Thou shalt not love by ways so dangerous.
Temper, O fair Love, love’s impetuous rage,
Be my true Mistress still, not my feign’d Page;
I’ll go, and, by thy kind leave, leave behind
Thee, only worthy to nurse in my mind
Thirst to come back;”
—John Donne (1572–1631)
“Not even the visionary or mystical experience ever lasts very long. It is for art to capture that experience, to offer it to, in the case of literature, its readers; to be, for a secular, materialist culture, some sort of replacement for what the love of god offers in the world of faith.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)