Partial vs full knee replacement

It's a problem that more and more people are facing as they grow older, knee replacement surgery. In today's Healthy Living, we'll take you to the Center for Hip and Knee Surgery in Mooresville. Dr. Michael Berend explains that a full knee replacement may not be necessary, but a partial knee replacement may be just what the doctor ordered.

We have had the Center for Hip and Knee Surgery here for over 25 years and have performed over 36,000 joint replacements and as part of that, we have done a fair amount of research, both clinically and bio-mechanically, and I think we have proven outcomes and established a lot of the joint replacement protocols that are used throughout the United States.

So we've spent a lot of time lately investigating the difference between partial knee replacement and total knee replacement. And we've discovered a number of things that it's actually less risky to have a partial knee replacement, the long term durability appears about equal, and you're able to keep two-thirds of the normal knee. And we've gradually increased about half of our patients now qualify for a partial knee replacement, compared to a total.

We've studied very in-depth how knee replacements fail and its lead to a number of improved designs, improved surgical techniques that we think improve the twenty and thirty year performance of modern implants.

We have a number of ways to get a hold of us. Obviously, we're in the business of seeing patients, so making an appointment is the best way to get X-rays, physical examination, watch people walk and try to evaluate their arthritic condition. We see people five-days a week and we're honored to see anybody from Terre Haute that wants to be evaluated for a joint replacement surgery. The main number here is 317-831-2273. www.CenterForHipAndKneeSurgery.org .