Keith Mitchell's Case Study

Partial Knee Replacement

My Knee Surgery

Keith Mitchell
Treated by: James Newman
Procedure: Partial knee replacement

“If I were having another knee operation, I’d want Mr. Newman to do it.”

Worn down by constant knee pain and encouraged by the advice of his golfing friends, Keith Mitchell knew it was time to consider knee replacement.

It’s fair to say that, over the years, Keith Mitchell’s knees have taken some serious punishment.

“I used to play rugby league,” he explains, “and, in my earlier days, I worked in a coal mine.”

Intensifying knee pain had led Keith to first seek medical treatment in 2016, having a couple of cortisone injections and other treatments. Since then, he’d been persevering with the gradual deterioration in his knees, but it was becoming harder to “grin and bear it”.

“I’ve always been active,” he says, “When I finished work I started doing quite a bit of walking, but the pain was getting worse. I could still walk miles but every step was painful. It was on the inside of my right knee and, although it was painful while walking, it was even worse the day after.”

Worse still, as the pain in the right knee increased, Keith found himself overcompensating on his left knee, which was also starting to become more painful.

“If I’m honest it was just wearing me down a bit. I’d just had enough of it.”

“Jim Newman put my mind at rest – I had complete confidence in him”

Keith saw his GP who referred him to YKC’s Jim Newman. “I’ve got quite a few golfing friends who’ve had surgery done by Mr. Newman. I have to say I just felt so at ease with him. He said, ‘this is the situation. This is what I would do if I was you. This is what will happen’. He really put my mind at rest – I had complete confidence in him.”

Keith’s x-ray clearly indicated the problem on the inside of the right knee and Jim Newman suggested a partial knee replacement. “People have said to me, ‘why have a partial knee when you can have a full one?’ Mr. Newman said to me that I needed to look at it from a different point of view – that having a partial knee might stop me needing a full one. He also told me about the quicker recovery, and that having the partial knee now wouldn’t prevent me having a full knee in the future if it was needed.

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT PARTIAL KNEE REPLACEMENTS

James Newman

Consultant Knee Surgeon at the Yorkshire Knee Clinic

“If I were having another knee operation, I’d want Mr. Newman to do it.”

Keith Mitchell,
YKC patient.

“I never felt a thing”

Keith’s surgery took place at Spire Methley Park hospital.

“I had a spinal block and some sedative. I slept all the way through the procedure – never felt a thing. A nurse woke me up afterwards. Mr. Newman was walking along the bottom of the bed. He just looked at me , asked if I was all right and put his thumb up. He said, ‘You’ve had half a knee, everything’s gone fine’.”

In hospital overnight, Keith was encouraged to mobilise quickly.

“They got me up and I walked down the corridor, and up and down stairs.”

“The first two nights were tough”

When Keith came out of hospital he remained pain-free until the anaesthetic wore off. By then he was taking paracetamol and codeine to manage the pain.

“I have to be honest, the pain over the first two nights was tough,” he says. “I didn’t feel that the codeine or the paracetamol were helping much. I rang the hospital and they suggested I change the way I was taking my tablets. So instead of taking them all together every four hours, I staggered them every two. Even that only helped a bit, but after the first two days, the pain subsided.

I kept taking the painkillers for a week and a half or so. After that I came off them entirely.”

“I can do eight or nine thousand steps a day, no problem.”

Just past his six week review with Jim Newman and now signed off by the physio, how does Keith feel now?

“I can do eight or nine thousand steps a day, no problem. My knee sometimes feels a little tight, as though someone’s squeezing it, but Mr Newman told me to expect a bit of swelling, a bit of tightness. It’s still early days as the scar tissues are still healing.

“Although I’m retired from full-time work, I do a few hours of green keeping at the golf club, and I started back this week. As long as I’m able to stop and start when I want, I’m ok to do that – so I’ve done a couple of two-three hour sessions. I know things will only keep improving from here.

“If I were having another knee operation, I’d want Mr. Newman to do it. He did everything he said he was going to do. And from going in to coming out, the hospital looked after me very well – the care I got was second to none.”