The knee prosthesis extends our quality of life

One in two people will suffer pain throughout their life secondary to the wear of their knee. When conservative treatment is no longer effective, the knee prosthesis is a very good option since it improves function, eliminates pain and, ultimately, improves the quality of life of patients.

In Spain, about 55,000 knee prostheses are placed annually. The first knee prosthesis was implanted in 1968 and since then many improvements in the techniques have been introduced. Currently we can perform partial knee prostheses in which we replace only the part that is damaged , we can also use customized custom cut guides.. Before the intervention a scan or resonance is performed and the first cutting pieces of the prosthesis are designed specifically for each patient and give us the alignment that the prosthesis will have.

There have also been great advances in the management of immediate pain after the intervention, thanks to the realization of peripheral nerve blocks and the use of epidural catheters.

The average time of hospital stay is 4 to 5 days. Patients leave the hospital walking and continue to do rehabilitation for 6 to 8 weeks.

The prosthesis of knee is one of the surgeries with greater percentage of successes and produces a great satisfaction to the patient and his surgeon. Today the average survival of a prosthesis exceeds 15 years. Infection is a complication that occurs in less than 1% of prostheses.

Patients with a prosthesis should avoid impact sports, but can walk what they want, swim, ride a bike, play golf, etc.

There is a clear relationship between the result and the number of interventions performed per year in the center and by each surgeon. The percentage of complications is lower the more interventions are performed. Although there are no good or bad prostheses, but well or poorly placed , in Spanish private healthcare most insurers allow the surgeon to choose the prosthesis that will be implanted.