ORLANDO, Fla. - If you need a new knee, your biggest worry has got to be the pain, and after that, the length of recovery. But what if you could get surgery, get better, and get out the hospital door faster than ever before? That dream is now a reality.
Deborah Boise has to clean this apartment pronto. Of course, her pesky right knee kept her from sprucing up things in the first place.
"Years ago, I decided to take karate and jujitsu when I was in my 40s, "Deborah Boise said.
She said the strain from that and arthritis meant she needed a new one. More than 700,000 people line up for knee replacements each year. But hospital recovery takes time - in part due to the narcotic pain meds used in surgery.
"But they cause lots of other problems: nausea, confusion, patient couldn't remember what they did in therapy the day before," Hugh Morris, M.D., orthopedic surgeon at Florida Hospital explained.
So the Florida Hospital team led by Dr. Morris perfected a new surgery technique. Surgeons place a femoral nerve block high in the thigh. This way, non-narcotic meds can be used to numb the limb and keep it that way for two days after surgery. The result is up to a 95 percent reduction in post-op pain.
"Because their pain is controlled so much better, they can do so much more with their physical therapy much earlier," Dr. Morris said.
The new method means physical therapy that could take up to six months now may only take six weeks. Deborah knows, she got her left knee replaced years ago using the old method.
"There's a hope there now that I didn't have so much with the left one," Deborah said.
While this current surgery is six years in the making, Dr. Morris' team pioneered the advanced "nerve block" technique. So far, it's been used in more than 100 patients over the past six months.
RESEARCH SUMMARY:
BACKGROUND: According to the National Institutes of Health, patients may want to consider knee replacement surgery if they have a stiff, painful knee that prevents them from performing even the simplest of activities, and other treatments are no longer working. More than 700,000 people line up for knee replacements each year. The average hospital stay after knee joint replacement is usually three to five days but the recovery period takes a lot longer than that, and it can be painful.
According to the Arthritis Health Center, in knee replacement surgery, doctors remove the damaged cartilage and replace it with new joint surfaces in a step-by-step process. Patients will have intravenous antibiotics for about a day after surgery. They will also receive medicines to control pain, and perhaps, medicines to prevent blood clots. It is not unusual to have an upset stomach or feel constipated after surgery.
REVOLUTION: Dr. Hugh Morris, an orthopedic surgeon at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Fla., has advanced and implemented a new pain management technique. This procedure reduces post-op pain by up to 95 percent. It also reduces the need for high doses of drugs. Patients have less chance of experiencing the complications that usually come from using drugs like nausea, dizziness and urinary issues.
NEW TECHNIQUE: By inserting a femoral nerve block high into the thigh, non-narcotic supplements are used to numb the knee. It keeps the knee numb through a pain pump for two days after the surgery, making the rehab process a much less painful and lengthy one.
