Alternative Treatments that Don’t involve Robotic Knee Replacement – Dr Daniel Meyerkort, Perth Orthopaedic
Understandably many patients wish to delay knee replacement for as long as possible. Below are a list of treatments that are available to help delay or avoid knee replacement.
Physiotherapy & Knee Strengthening Exercise
Improving muscle strength around your knee with a Physiotherapist has been well proven to reduce pain and restore function. If you end up requiring knee replacement your surgery is safer and recovery is quicker if you have seen a Physiotherapist for prehabilitation.
Weight loss
Every 1 – 2 kilos of weight loss will result in a small reduction in your knee pain. The more weight your are able to lose the greater reduction in your knee pain.
Simple painkillers
Such as Paracetamol or anti inflammatory
Injections
Cortisone (steroid), Hyaluronic Acid (brand names Synvisc, Monovisc, Durolane etc) or your own blood (PRP) can all help reduce pain especially in mild to moderate arthritis. This can be combined with en Exercise Program. If you are seeking to trial injection therapy I would recommend Dr Rachel Harris or Dr Tom Hill at Perth Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Centre.
Stem Cells
Perth Orthopaedic has a long history of trialing cartilage regrowth, cells were taken from the knee, grown in the lab then implanted back into your knee. Unfortunately the results of this treatment for knee osteoarthritis have not been helpful. Stem cell treatment (from you tummy fat or bone marrow) have been trialed but have not shown any significant improvement. It is a strong recommendation not to consider stem cell treatment at this stage.
Osteotomy
Knee realignment can be useful to transfer weight bearing from the damaged part of your knee to the undamaged part. This is a good surgical option in a select group of patients. The best candidate for this procedure is a relatively young patient (usually <55 years old) who does manual work and has isolated medial compartment osteoarthritis.