What does knee arthroscopy surgery consist of?
Knee arthroscopy consists of a minimally invasive procedure in which, through small incisions called portals, we enter to see, through an optic, the joint and everything it contains, in the case of the knee, the meniscus, the ligaments, the cartilage and the sinobium. And we can also treat them with specific instruments in a simple or more or less complex way, but the surgeon can avoid opening the joint for this intervention.
What are the advantages and disadvantages compared to other techniques?
The advantages of knee arthroscopy are obviously to avoid an aggressive approach and to achieve a faster recovery in order to treat an intra-articular pathological process, inside the joint, which we can see perfectly or even better through the optics that we introduce through one of the portals. The disadvantages may be that not always all pathologies, all lesions can be treated with arthroscopy. That would be the only drawback. And well, obviously, the technical difficulty and the learning curve required to obtain good results, as in other techniques.
Is there any risk involved?
Knee arthroscopy, like any intervention, has some risks, but in this case we are talking about a very small percentage of patients who suffer complications, such as infection of the portals, venous thrombosis, neurovascular lesion. In general, the risks are minimal and the patient can quickly return to a fairly normal life.
What recovery does the patient need after the operation?
After knee arthroscopy, the patient is usually discharged the same day he is operated and can walk with the help of English canes or crutches from the beginning. He needs to take care of the inflammation with cold, with pressure, but he can move around with these measures from the first moment. Evidently the complete recovery of the operated injury depends on this injury. It is not the same to operate a meniscus or a ligament or the cartilage to obtain the complete recovery that sometimes yes that can be prolonged a time.