A new study has confirmed what orthopaedic surgeons have long suspected – that waiting for longer than six months for a total hip or knee replacement has a big impact on a patient’s quality of life. Edinburgh University study The cross-sectional multicentre study from the University of Edinburgh, which was published in The Bone and…
Most total knee replacements are performed under general anaesthetic, which means you will be asleep throughout. But patients may also be offered spinal anaesthesia – or epidural – which numbs you from the waist down but means you remain conscious throughout the surgery. Controversy surrounds the use of spinal rather than general anaesthetic in total…
Concerns have been raised recently about implants used in hip replacement surgery which contain cobalt-chrome. This follows a report from France which suggested that there could be a link between the use of cobalt-chrome femoral head implants (used at the top of the thigh bone) and possible increased health risks. The French researchers pointed to…
NHS figures published in 2020 show that there were 81,130 hip replacements in the year from April 2018 to March 2019. The majority (59.4%) were carried out on female patients. Over the same time period, there were 93,911 knee replacements. Again, more than half of these (56.5%) were on female patients.
Your knee has two C-shaped pieces of cartilage – called the meniscus – that help to cushion the shinbone and thighbone and support the joint. Forcefully twisting or rotating your knee – for example, by pivoting or turning sharply – can tear your meniscus.
A total knee arthroplasty – also called total knee replacement – is a surgical procedure to treat severe knee pain caused by injury or a degenerative condition like osteoarthritis. It involves removing the damaged knee joint and replacing it with a prosthetic implant. Knee replacement surgery is one of the most successful of all surgical…
A total hip replacement is offered to people with severe hip pain and loss of mobility due to a degenerative condition like osteoarthritis or a serious hip fracture. It involves removing the damaged hip joint and replacing it with an artificial implant.
Knee replacement surgery is a routine procedure offered to patients with severe knee pain due to osteoarthritis. A total knee replacement involves removing the entire knee joint and replacing it with a prosthetic implant, whereas a partial knee replacement entails replacing only the damaged sections of the knee joint and leaving the undamaged sections intact.
Haemophilia is an inherited blood disorder which causes the person’s blood to fail to clot properly. Blood normally contains proteins – called clotting factors – that help to stop bleeding. However, in people with haemophilia, the factor VIII and factor IX proteins are very low which can lead to spontaneous or prolonged bleeding following an…
Around three million people in the UK have Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and around 63,000 are being treated for kidney failure.