A NEW KNEE MADE IN JUST 24 HOURS

June 27, 2000

KNEE replacements, once major operations requiring up to two weeks in hospital, are now being turned around as day cases. Patients are leaving hospital just 4 hours after having a joint surgically implanted through a two-inch incision in the knee.

Doctors believe thousands of people a year will benefit from this latest advance in orthopaedic surgery technology, where the new joint is put into the knee without disturbing the surrounding healthy tissue.

Increasing numbers of younger people are among those having the operation, which

until relatively recently did not always produce great results.

‘When I qualified in the 1970s, knee surgeons were virtually unheard of,’ says John Fairclough, a consultant and knee specialist in Cardiff. ‘Knee replacements were done occasionally. Now results are superb.’

Knee replacements have taken longer to perfect because they are far more complicated than the simple ball-and-socket of the hip joint.

Not only does the knee have to act as a hinge, but it also has to withstand the knocks of everyday life. ‘If a knee replacement does become necessary, people are now in a better position than at any time in medical history,’ says the Arthritis Research Campaign.

‘The earliest replacements were made very much like a hinge, and they tended to work only for a short time. Now, a good result can be expected in more than 90 per cent of cases.’

For some, there is also the option of a different type of artificial knee joint, the Oxford Unicompartmental. Developed in Oxford, and made by Biomet Merck, the joint is designed for people who need only part of the knee replaced. Because it is installed through a small incision, there is minimal disturbance to the knee cap and less scarring for the patient, resulting in a recovery more than three times faster than a total knee replacement. ‘In effect, we’re replacing half of the knee so a much smaller incision is needed,’ says Mr Fairclough.