Your knees work hard during your daily routine, and arthritis of the knee or a knee injury can make it hard for you to perform normal tasks of daily life. If your injury or arthritis is severe, you may begin experience pain when you’re sitting down or trying to sleep. Sometimes a Total Knee Replacement is the only option for reducing pain and restoring a normal activity level. A total knee replacement involves cutting away the damaged bone of the knee joint and replacing it with prosthesis. This “new joint” prevents the bones from rubbing together and provides a smooth knee joint.
The goal of knee replacement surgery is to resurface the parts of the knee joint that have been damaged and to relieve knee pain that cannot be controlled by other treatments.
Over time, however, a knee replacement may fail for a variety of reasons. When this occurs, your knee can become painful and swollen. It may also feel stiff or unstable, making it difficult to perform your everyday activities. If your knee replacement fails, your doctor may recommend that you have a second surgery—revision total knee replacement. In this procedure, your doctor removes some or all of the parts of the original prosthesis and replaces them with new ones. Although both procedures have the same goal—to relieve pain and improve function—revision surgery is different than primary total knee replacement. It is a longer, more complex procedure that requires extensive planning, and specialized implants and tools to achieve a good result.
