Srinagar , 24 February : As many as 25 members of Srinagar Physiotherapy Association, Srinagar attended a health talk on the benefits of knee replacement surgery at Srinagar on Saturday. . The talk was organized by Fortis Hospital, Mohali wherein its senior consultant of orthopedics & joint replacement, Dr. Gagan Deep Gupta dispelled various myths about replacement surgery. Dr Gupta said that with advanced techniques like computer navigation now, joint replacement surgery is almost painless during operation and further scale of pain after the operation has also dropped by 90%. It is now managed with continuous epidural analgesia, said Dr. Gupta.
Dr. Gagan advised that since knee replacement falls in a major surgery category, patients should choose the operating facility with good cardiology and medical ICU backup in case of any adverse event. Patients should avoid walking immediately after the surgery as there can be a chance of fall or loosening of implant. Physiotherapy has good role to bring the required range of motion and to tune the thigh and calf muscle. Squatting or sitting and cross legs should be avoided immediately after surgery as there can be chances of loosening of implant . Age and overweight are not the contraindications for knee replacement surgery if the patient is declared medically fit, he opined. knee replacement isn’t a replacement at all. It is a removal of the worn-out diseased cartilage of the bone above and below the knee, and the replacing of those end surfaces with cartilage replacing implants.
Dr Gagan further stated that the general population should understand that only the word knee replacement is misnomer; however the technology of surgery in particular has not changed. Which means that advising the patient to choose knee resurfacing surgery and to avoid knee replacement surgery is completely wrong, he maintained. As both the surgeries are same technically, only the name has gradually shifted from knee replacement to knee resurfacing as the former is a misnomer, he clarified. Likewise it is not a replacement like liver or kidney, hence this new terminology (resurfacing) is on a rise in the market, he remarked.
