If you’re living with osteoarthritis-based knee pain, Yorkshire Knee Clinic’s knee surgeons may address it by performing what is commonly known as a ‘knee replacement’. But don’t let the name put you off. It’s not really a replacement, and our knee surgeons for Pontefract have performed thousands of successful procedures.

You’ll remove my knee?

The very mention of a knee replacement is enough to worry many patients. Every day our knee consultants meet Pontefract patients whose greatest concern is with that word ‘replacement’. Yet whilst it conjures up images of the leg being ‘chopped’ above and below the knee, having the old knee removed and a new one swapped in, that’s not what happens at all.

Knee ‘replacement’ is really knee ‘resurfacing’. During a knee resurfacing operation, our knee specialists for Pontefract remove only the worn-out surfaces of the bone above and below the knee. These are then replaced by thin metal surfaces. Between the surfaces, a polyethylene spacer acts as a hard-wearing artificial cartilage.

> Discover more about knee resurfacing / replacements

There’s more than one type of knee replacement in Pontefract

In every patient, the knee wears differently. Sometimes, the wear is across all surfaces of the bone and the only solution is total knee resurfacing.

But in around 50% of the potential knee-replacement patients seen by our knee surgeons for Pontefract, the wear will be on one side of the knee only, which may make them suitable for a partial knee replacement.

Like a total replacement, a partial knee replacement for Pontefract patients isn’t actually a replacement. But partial resurfacing does have several advantages over its total counterpart:

• You are likely to recover quicker (as the surgery is less invasive)
• Risks associated with surgery are reduced
• Recovery tends to be more complete as all the knee ligaments are preserved

To find out whether total or partial knee resurfacing is appropriate for your knee pain, contact the knee surgeons for Pontefract today or phone us on 03453 052 579.