It is no surprise that the knees are the most commonly injured joint and that knee replacement complications can potentially arise after knee replacement surgery. Your knees work extremely hard everyday, from walking and climbing stairs, to getting in and out of your car. Because the joints feel approximately four times your body weight in pressure during every movement, it is pretty easy to strain or even damage your knees. In fact, it is common to experience knee pain when you have no other body pain.
Sometimes this pain is indicative of deterioration of the joint that needs to be treated. Drastic procedures such as replacement surgery do not have to be the only solution. If you don’t want to immediately turn to the operation room to ease your pain and stiffness, you have other options. There are many knee replacement alternatives that can protect and rehabilitate your joints without you having to endure major surgery and extensive therapy to recuperate, or face potential knee replacement complications.
Potential Knee Replacement Complications
Any form of major surgery can be a frightening prospect. It is well-known that invasive medical procedures like joint replacements carry with them the potential for devastating side effects and complications. Even if you know something must be done about your knees, you probably are not excited at the prospect of undergoing the surgery and lengthy recovery period, and the thought of knee replacement complications can dissuade you from seeking treatment. Risks such as infection, excessive bleeding or a bad reaction to the anesthetic can occur during any procedure.
When it comes to a knee replacement, though, there are other risks that should be considered. Infection can affect any part of the body, but after a replacement surgery it is possible that the implant itself will become infected and require further surgery to remove it. Of the more serious potential knee replacement complications, deterioration and loosening of the implant are among the most severe. With a very physically-active person, a knee replacement may degrade over time and necessitate another replacement surgery a few years later. Should the implant loosen and come in contact with the tissues of the actual knee, you could experience pain, inflammation and immobility. These complications can be completely avoided, though, by choosing to forego the major surgery and instead utilizing much safer and equally effective knee replacement alternatives.
Long before you consider knee replacement you should think about some of the knee replacement alternatives. These options can strengthen your knees and head off damage that has already begun from getting to the point where surgery might be required.
One of these alternative is making some small changes in your lifestyle that can make a big impact on the wear and tear on your knees. Something like losing weight and adopting a routine of knee strengthening exercises can help to reduce the stress on your knees and begin to rehabilitate them. If your damage is beyond what can be successfully reduced with lifestyle changes, there are several minimally-invasive procedures using microscopic technology to remove damaged cartilage. These types of procedures greatly reduce the pain, potential for knee replacement complications, and recovery time that are caused by knee replacement surgery.