Knee arthritis is a scourge in the Western world today, as it essentially destroys the cartilage.
Cartilage is the smooth, white, elastic tissues that are between our bones and help the joints to move.
This tissue, the articular cartilage, due to specific disease entities or over time is “eaten” (destroyed), causing the bones to “rub” against each other and cause pain, deformity, deformity and stiffness in patients.
“When this condition concerns the knee we are talking about knee arthritis, a disease that concerns, often excruciatingly, more and more people around the world. It is a multifactorial disease, i.e. many factors play a role in its appearance, among which the main ones are genetic, environmental, nutritional, the person’s weight, activities, etc.”, points out Mr. Athanasios Koukakis, Orthopedic Surgeon, Director Clinical Robotic and Minimally Invasive Surgery Metropolitan General.
What happens if a person is diagnosed with knee arthritis?
If the diagnosis is incipient knee arthritis, then it is possible to alleviate its symptoms with conservative treatment, which includes: avoiding activities that cause exacerbation of symptoms, physical therapy, medication, local injections of hyaluronic acid or cortisone, as well as the new ” promising’ platelet-rich plasma or stem cell (PRP) infusions. However, conservative treatment simply limits the symptoms but does not help the patient regain the quality of life he had before the arthritis and in the long run, does not cure the problem.
Definitive treatment of advanced arthritis is surgery, partial or total knee replacement. And in this field in recent years there has been a revolution with many benefits, which moves along three axes:
1st axis
The first axis is the improvement of the materials used for arthroplasty implants. The implants are made of new metal alloys, which give them a longer lifespan, up to 20 years.
2nd axis
The second axis is the way of placing these “grafts” in the human body. This method has been simplified, giving surgeons the possibility to deal with the problem with less invasive operations, as the advanced robotic systems that have existed in the last 10 years, “perform” under the guidance of the surgeon, part of the operation, ensuring absolute precision in the placement of advanced implants and less surgical trauma.
3rd axis
The third axis is the so-called “fast track” procedures, with which patients recover from arthroplasty. These are specific physiotherapy and rapid mobilization protocols, which combined with the smallest surgical trauma and the least blood loss, allow the patient to be discharged in 1 to 3 days. “This is an amazing amount of time, especially when compared to the minimum 15 days previously required with conventional knee replacement techniques. In addition, the patient regains a quality of life that he thought was lost.
In conclusion, the combination: a good surgeon, good equipment and a suitable hospital is the most appropriate treatment for the modern scourge called knee arthritis”, concludes Mr. Koukakis.
Written by:
K. Athanasios Koukakis, Orthopedic Surgeon,
Clinical Director of Robotic and Minimally Invasive Surgery Metropolitan General
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