Arthritis And Joint Replacement
Our knee and hip joint play a vital role in ensuring we move about with ease and do our day-to-day work with ease. With time however, chronic pain in the knee and hip joint flare up, often interfering with daily movement such as getting up, bending down, walking and climbing stairs among others.
Chronic pain in the knee and hip is caused by osteoarthritis, or degeneration of the joints. This is primarily caused with advancing age as the cartilage tissue, which protects the joints, gets weaker. This wear and tear with age leads to osteoarthritis, one of the most common forms of arthritis across the world.
Other reasons for osteoarthritis include injury to the joints, obesity and heredity — wherein a person has inherited a defective cartilage gene. Symptoms of osteoarthritis include chronic pain in joints; loss of range of motion in the joints; reduced flexibility leading to pain while performing daily activities; joint swelling and tenderness and stiffness in joints leading to limping, especially in the morning.
Doctors take a step-by-step treatment plan to tackle osteoarthritis, through pain medications, physiotherapy and steroidal treatment. But if non-surgical treatments fail, then joint replacement, whether hip or knee, is the next step.
Joint replacement will involve replacing the damaged joint with high-quality artificial implants. Post surgery, and after the recovery period, patients have more mobility and lead a pain-free daily life. With good care, the replaced joint has a life of more than 15 years.
Joint replacement is carried out at the Ranka Hospital in Pune headed by Dr Ramesh Ranka, head of Orthopedics and Chief of Ranka Hospital. “Joint Replacement is a revolutionary treatment available to patients today, which greatly improves the quality of life of a patient post surgery,” says Dr Ranka.
He adds that at the Ranka Hospital, the surgeries are carried out with zero infection rate and their team of physiotherapists help in the recovery of the patients post surgery. “Patients undergoing joint replacement can soon get back to their work and other routine activities with the aid of physiotherapy. The main precaution is to avoid very high stress activities that could cause damage to the implants,” adds Dr Ranka.
