Dr. Garlick Talks Same Day Knee Replacements
Anyone in need of a knee replacement knows the problem here and faces weeks if not months of recovery after going under the knife. But you know, more and more patients are having success with something very different now on there. They’re getting partial joint replacements, not the whole thing. Just part. Dr Joe is going to show you now why in this case, half may indeed be better than the whole.
As principal of Tampa charter school, Sheila Tomley says she walks a lot. There’s not a lot of sitting for long periods of time. I’m up and down quite frequently, but last year, knee pain kept her out of the hallways. It begins to feel swollen, inflamed the muscles around. It almost began to uh, to freeze up. Her only relief was to sit. My mobility has just decreased so much that I realize I’m getting around like a person much older than I really am. After other therapy failed Dr. Grant Garlick offered her a surgery. But instead of replacing the entire knee, he’d only remove the damaged area. It’s like going to the car dealership. You have one bad tire. Why get all four replaced? Replace what’s worn, replace what’s deficient.
Inner portion of Sheila’s right knee will be replaced leaving the middle and outer portions intact. He says there’s less chance for infection and while there’s no guarantee, surgery may help prevent new problems from forming in the rest of her knee. If you intercede prior to the other compartments being effected, you actually in essence can unload the other compartments and stop the disease progression.
They’re called compartmental knee replacements, an option more and more Americans are taking. Between 1998 and 2005 numbers jumped by 32%. Leave the ligaments intact.
The knee tracks normally again. I can obtain better range of motion, less blood loss, less pain and recovery time is as far less. The surgery is over. The outside of the kneecap, no arthritis at all. You’ll be able to get out of here within a couple hours. And three months later she was back at school. I’m smiling about it and couldn’t believe I went home. And one night and a week and a half later I was walking without a cane. And Sheila says that practice paid off. It turned me loose. Put me back to what I really want you to do. Sheila went home the very same day as her surgery and that is getting more common for this type of procedure. Of course, that also means she didn’t have to eat any hospital food.
Now what about the risk of this? Is this an option for a person who may be a surgical risk?
It’s going to depend. Obviously the, the less invasive procedure the better. But there are some individuals who can’t be put under general anesthesia. However, um, Dr Garlick says most people are able to tolerate this procedure. Well none of these things are what we will call, I won’t call them cheap, but economical. Is this one expensive or not? They’re all relatively expensive and we got some statistics from the University of Wisconsin. They said that these unique compartmental knee replacements run around $11,000 where is the total knees? Around $16,000 however, the total knee lasts longer. What’s this telling you about the future of knee replacement here, Dr Joe, where’s it going?
Well, you know, I think they say less is more and let’s hope, you know, someday we can regrow cartilage. I mean, that’s my hope. Anyway, that’s the issue right now, right? we can’t do that. STEM cells don’t let us do it yet. Not yet, but there’s hope, I’m sure. All right, well, it’s a new open door here for medicine here, and for a lot of patients who find themselves in that difficult position of having to choose either this or nothing, now it’s something.
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December 30, 2024