If I had one piece of advice for somebody dealing with knee pain… Initially, you can try to treat it yourself right, treat it with some rest, ice compression, elevation, anti-inflammatory medications, maybe some ibuprofen or Tylenol.
If the pain persists and is not getting better after a week or so, then you need to seek professional evaluation. The knee has three major compartments, the medial compartment, the lateral compartment, and the patellofemoral compartment, that all can be replaced. And in a total knee all three are replaced. And a partial knee, you’re specifically talking about only replacing one of those compartments.
The idea behind that is if the problem is primarily in one compartment, why replace the whole knee. Just doing one compartment, two-thirds of the knee is left alone. So it’s their normal native cartilage, their ligaments are left intact. So they get those normal impulses sent back to their brain like a normal knee and feels like a normal need to them as they use it.
If you’re doing this in a very young patient, say, in their 40s, you’re giving them back quality of life, allowing them to stay active. So if they want to run or jump or ski or play basketball, they’re not really restricted in doing that with Unicondylar knee arthroplasty, there’s not a big downside to it, because if even Unicondylar knee arthroplasty fails, most cases can be easily converted to total knee replacement.
Fifty percent of getting better involves the patient being able to perform the physical therapy and do what’s needed to recover correctly. So you getting up, getting out of bed, getting a range of motion back, getting your strength back.
Mentally, make the decision, hey, I chose to do this. I’m going to fight through it. I’m going to get better and I’m going have a good result. And that’s patients to create.
