25 Treatments for Hip and Knee OA -- Surgery
Page 3 -- Surgery
21. Joint replacement surgery. When symptoms of knee or hip OA are not controlled with drug and non-drug treatments, replacing the joint with a prosthesis is often effective. Read Arthritis Today’s three-part series on joint replacement.
22. Unicompartmental knee replacement. Approximately 30 percent of people with knee OA have disease that is largely restricted to one area of the joint. In these cases, unicompartmental knee replacement (also called partial knee replacement) may offer the same improvement and function as total knee replacement but with less trauma and better range of motion.
23. Osteotomy and joint-preserving surgery. For young, active people with hip or knee OA, osteotomy (a procedure in which bones are cut and realigned to improve joint alignment) may delay the need for joint replacement by years.
24. Joint lavage and arthroscopic debridement. The roles of joint lavage (flushing the joint with a sterile saline solution) and arthroscopic debridement (the surgical removal of tissue fragments from the joint) are controversial. Some studies have shown short-term relief; others suggest improvement in symptoms could be attributable to a placebo effect. Read more about these controversial procedures.
25. Joint fusion when replacement has failed. When knee replacement fails, joint fusion (a procedure in which the bones that form the joint are surgically prepared and then held in place with screws, pins or plates until they fuse into a single rigid unit) can be considered a salvage procedure.
