Understanding Joint Replacement

After orthopaedic surgery, your doctors and nurses will make every effort to control your pain. While you should expect to feel some discomfort, advancements in pain control now make it easier for your doctor to manage and relieve pain.

Knee and hip replacements are two of the most commonly performed elective operations. For the majority of patients, joint replacement surgery relieves pain and helps them to live fuller, more active lives.

During knee replacement surgery, an orthopaedic surgeon will resurface your damaged knee with artificial components, called implants.

Total hip and knee replacement surgeries are effective at easing the pain and dysfunction of arthritis which can limit a person’s ability to work and to enjoy leisure activities. Doing simple daily activities like going up and down stairs or putting on socks and shoes become difficult. Research has shown the benefits of total joint replacement surgery include not only resuming daily activities, but also improved quality of life and overall health with fewer days missed from work.

Arthroplasty means the surgical repair of a joint. Orthopaedic surgeons performing an arthroplasty use metal and/or plastic parts to reconstruct degenerative, damaged, or arthritic joint surfaces in patients with severe arthritis who have failed nonsurgical treatment and have disabling function, limitation of activities of daily living, and severe pain.

Hip and knee replacement surgery involve replacing the worn-out bone and cartilage lining your hip or knee joint with new implants that are composed of materials such as ceramic, metal and plastic. The materials used for hip and knee replacements are quite similar.