You will receive more detailed information from the Pre Anaesthetic Clinic nurses before your surgery.

In a knee replacement, we are removing small amounts of bone and the remaining cartilage, and replacing the end of the femur with a cap made of metal, and the top of the tibia with a piece of metal attached to the plastic bearing. The back surface of the kneecap is also replaced with a plastic button. In my practice, all joint replacements are cemented into place. In carefully selected patients, I sometimes perform partial knee replacements (Oxford arthroplasty).

Most joint replacements are done with a spinal anesthetic with your legs frozen, and you could be asleep or awake while the surgery is being performed. You can walk on the joint replacement with your full weight the day of surgery, and typically you are encouraged to get up the day of surgery. Many people do go home the day after surgery, you should typically plan on one or two nights in the hospital. It is unlikely that your stay will be longer than this, and you should plan on your ride home picking you up after one or two nights.

Complications after joint replacement include infection (which is often difficult to cure), blood clots (for which you will likely be on blood thinners), knee stiffness (often depending on how hard patients works at physio) and medical complications like heart attacks or pneumonias. These are all uncommon, and there is an over 95% chance that none of these will occur.

It is often difficult to know definitively if someone has an infection after a joint replacement, as it is common to have some redness, warmth and swelling after the surgery. The treatment of an infection after a joint replacement is usually surgery, not antibiotics, so if a health practitioner feels that you should start antibiotics, please contact my office and we will try to see you quickly as possible.

Most people after a knee replacement say that the first six weeks are pretty difficult, and going to physiotherapy is essential to regaining the knee movement. By six months afterwards, patients typically say that they are a lot better, but it definitely takes a year to reach full improvement in terms of mobility and strength. It is normal after a knee replacement to have minor pain, and for patients to say that the knee feels recognizably foreign to them.