Arthritis can cause severe knee pain and limit a person's mobility. This can interfere with someone's ability to accomplish everyday tasks. When the pain affects a person's quality of life, a total knee replacement can restore near-normal joint function. But before making the decision to have knee replacement surgery, you should first exhaust all the alternative treatment options available. These include: diet, physical therapy, medications, orthopedic appliances, walking aids, and less extensive surgical options.
Diet, Physical Therapy, and Medications
Excess weight can contribute to the pain and deterioration of an arthritic knee. According to Arthritis Insight, if you are overweight, losing some of those additional pounds will lighten the stress on your knees. Speak with your doctor about physical therapy. Gaining muscle strength and additional flexibility are two of the benefits of physical therapy, which can offer tremendous relief for a painful knee joint.
If the above two options have not helped, over-the-counter arthritis medications, such as Tylenol Arthritis Pain, should be tried before resorting to the NSAID's (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) Celebrex and Vioxx, which are prescribed medications. All of the NSAID's have potentially harmful side effects. The Hip and Knee Institute offers a comprehensive list of a variety of medications with their benefits and risks.
Orthopedic Appliances and Walking Aids
The Arthritis Insight Web site describes special braces that alter the weight load on specific areas of the knee with damaged or worn cartilage. If your arthritis has advanced to the point where diet and physical therapy do not offer enough pain relief, or if the deterioration of your knee is not too extensive, the knee brace offers relief. It can help relieve the continual wear and tear on the damaged areas, and may postpone the inevitable progression of your arthritis. Crutches and canes may also help to relieve pressure on an arthritic joint. You can try different models at any Wal-Mart, pharmacy, or surgical supply store. You will be amazed at how much relief you can get by alleviating even a small amount of pressure on a painful joint.
Alternative Surgical Options
If none of the above suggestions relieves your pain or improves the quality of your life and your ability to function, several alternative surgical options can be discussed with your doctor. Arthritis Insight's review of the various alternative surgical procedures available gives you some options to discuss with your doctor. It also prepares you for any questions you may have to ask at your next appointment.
Arthroscopic surgery, which involves a small incision, trims cartilage and damaged tissue. Cartilage transplantation is a procedure that replaces damaged knee cartilage with healthy cartilage from another area of the body. If the problem with your knee stems from an improper alignment of your leg, an Osteotomy can be done to cut the bone and realign the position of the leg and knee. Uni-compartmental Arthroplasty is performed to replace only the damaged area of the knee instead of the entire joint. As a last resort, Arthrodesis (knee fusion) can be considered. It involves permanently immobilizing the knee by flattening the ends of the bones that form the knee joint and allowing them to grow together.
You might also want to consider the options of cortisone injections or injectable lubricants such as Synvisc or Hyalgan. They allow freer joint movement for approximately six months with reduction or elimination of pain.
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