What to Expect Before and After a Knee Replacement Surgery

Knee surgery is becoming one of the most common bone surgeries in most countries. Living with pained knees will really hinder you from doing things, from the simplest to complex things. Damaged knee cartilage will cause extreme pain due to bones grinding against each other when movement is detected. Knee replacement surgery helps in replacing the lost cartilage to restore its former function to the knee.

Many people who have gone through the surgery see a huge improvement in pain and their ability to get around. Arthroplasty is a knee replacement surgery that uses artificial parts as substitution of your knees. A makoplasty is also a common knee cap surgery that one can go for: https://sgbonedoctor.com/makoplasty/

Relentless Pain Regardless of Medication

Before you even know you need a surgery, you must’ve experienced piercing pain and stiffness that makes it hard for you to climb stairs and to even walk, your rest is disrupted due to swelling of knees and knees defects. When you face this pain, no medication is helpful enough than the non-surgical treatment and the surgery itself. When dieting and exercising don’t make a chance to your damaged knees, refer to your doctor as soon as possible and surgery will be scheduled right away.

Preparing for Surgery

Before the surgery takes place, your surgeon will inquire for your medical history along with doing a physical examination including X-rays and blood tests to figure out how the damaged knees look like. From the X-ray, doctor will be able to identify how much muscles can support the knee and the movement of the joint. You are required to tell your doctor of the medication you are on. Eating 8 hours before surgery isn’t allowed.

It is said that patients who did knee-strengthening exercises in preparation for surgery sometimes recover more quickly than those who do not. Also, patients who have other medical conditions, are older, and smoke cigarettes may take a longer time to heal.

The Recovery Process

After the surgery happens, you can hardly feel your feet within 24 hours. Some may feel better, but some may feel worse than the arthritis itself. Fret not because the post-surgical pain is normal, and it happens to everyone who goes through the knee replacement surgery. If the pain is unbearable, doctors will treat the pain with pain-relief methods combination called multimodal analgesia to minimize the side effects.

Crutches, a cane or a walker, parallel bars may be needed in the first few days to strengthen the leg muscles. You should be assisted during these critical post-surgery hours by at least 1 person. You may also need to do training by walking a few hundred feet away over time. Discharge criteria may differ from each hospital. Some may want to see improvements beforehand. 

In conclusion, everyone needs to know what to expect before and after the knee replacement surgery, either to prepare yourself or in order to help assist someone in need, in the future. The pain felt post-surgery is temporary before the patient can finally get to fully use his or her knees back in normal again.

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