Knee pain can be persistent and worsen over the years, especially if you have suffered an extensive injury or you have severe arthritis. When you suffer from knee pain, you may struggle to maintain a consistent exercise regimen or even start to avoid common household chores because of the pain. As an orthopedic surgeon in Orange City, we provide treatment options to alleviate knee pain in our patients. Often, we start with options like steroid injections and physical therapy.
Over time, these solutions may no longer be effective at treating pain, and this may require you to consider surgical treatments. These are some of the surgical treatments that your surgeon may suggest to treat your knee pain.
If non-surgical treatment options did not work for you, or no longer work for you, your doctor may recommend a total knee replacement surgery. This is often recommended when your knee joint has no more cartilage to protect it, which causes pain when the bone rubs on bone. Also, those with deteriorated joints can also require total knee replacement surgery to remove the damaged area and replace the entire knee joint with a stable and durable artificial joint.
Partial knee replacement surgery is an option for those who need replacement of only one of the three different knee parts. This can involve replacement of either the medial, lateral, or patellofemoral regions of the knee, depending on where the most extensive damage lies. This surgical treatment ensures that the most damaged part of the knee receives treatment while the other parts are spared. When you only require partial knee replacement surgery, you can expect a less invasive procedure that also offers the benefit of a faster recovery period.
Arthroscopic surgery is both a surgical treatment and a diagnostic procedure to diagnose and treat knee pain. In this procedure, your doctor will insert a camera-carrying tube directly into the knee joint to locate the cause of the knee pain. When the camera is in there, your surgeon will also magnify the image to use for diagnostic purposes. While the surgeon is in there, they may decide a course of treatment and implement the solution immediately with the proper treatment.
This less-invasive surgical procedure is often used to alleviate knee pain for those that stay physically active and have poor knee alignment. During this procedure, your surgeon will trim the shin or thigh bone to re-align the pressure around the knee joint and alleviate pain. This is done to prevent the progression of your knee pain related to osteoarthritis, so it may only be a temporary solution for some patients.
When your doctor believes that you have exhausted all of your treatment options, they may suggest surgery as a solution to treat your knee pain. If you are looking to treat your knee pain, you should work with our orthopedic surgeon in Orange City.
Contact us to hear about our knee specialists and book an appointment with us today.