Why partial knee replacement surgery might be best for you

Surgery for your knee arthritis and pain doesn’t always require a total knee replacement.

Knees do not necessarily wear out evenly. Sometimes the worn or arthritis-affected area that is causing your knee pain is localised to one damaged or diseased area of your knee.

If the whole knee isn’t damaged, then why replace all of it?

There are many treatment options to help get you moving again and one that we perform often in appropriate patients is unicompartmental or partial knee replacement surgery.

During this procedure we replace the damaged or arthritis affected part of your knee and leave the healthy bone and cartilage intact. Partial knee replacement also leaves the ligaments intact. This often results in better post-operative function.

The damaged area is then replaced with an implant for the knee. These are made from a combination of metal and plastic (high molecular weight polyethylene).

There are a number of advantages to partial knee implant surgery over total knee implants, including:

• The incision is smaller and no ligaments are removed, which may lead to better function and a more natural feeling knee
• Your stay in hospital will usually be shorter
• There is often less pain following knee surgery
• Recovery is usually faster
• There is generally a more normal feeling to the way the knee feels and moves afterwards.

We use advanced, robotic assistance technology to perform partial knee replacement surgery on appropriate patients in Newcastle and the Hunter.