Arthroscopy Facts and Information

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Arthroscopy is a surgical procedure that is performed to visualize the inside of a joint. It is applied on several joints for the following conditions:

Knees – cartilage tears, chondromalacia

Wrists – carpal tunnel syndrome

Shoulders – chronic dislocation, impingement syndrome and rotator cuff tendon tears.

Arthroscopy is commonly done in knees in comparison to other joints. About 11.2 million hospital visits are done annually involving knee problems, with 1.5 million knee arthroscopy procedures done each year. Although arthroscopy was mainly done for the previously stated joints, recent advancement in technology has made it possible to perform the diagnostic and corrective procedure on the hips, elbows, and ankles

Arthroscopy is done by inserting a device called an arthroscope through a small incision done at the skin. The arthroscope has a probe equipped with a high-powered lens connected to a monitor for clear visualization of the joint. The probe has its own lighting system done with the latest fiber optics technology. The images are remarkably crisp, clear, and highly detailed. These images give the surgeon a good idea what is happening to the joint and what area in the joint is giving you a problem.

If you are scheduled for a arthroscopic procedure, your doctor will give you some pre-op preparations to do depending on the type of anesthesia used: general, local, or spinal. The type of anesthesia varies in accordance to what are to be studied and how severe the condition would be. Three incisions are done in strategic locations, both for arthroscopic access and for other corrective procedures.

Once the operation is done, the incisions are covered with bandages and you are then moved from the operating room to the recovery room. The major advantage of this procedure is that the incisions done are mostly self-healing and full recovery is expected within days or a couple of weeks at most.

Amazing as the surgery can be, there are also some complications that you have to watch out for. Although these complications are rare, you and your doctor must do active measures to prevent them:

Infection is at risk for there is a break on the skin due to surgery. This is commonly eliminated by taking prophylactic antibiotic drugs as well as keeping the wound clean at all times.

Bleeding can also occur when the incision does not seal itself properly. It is important to keep the knees dry and the bandages touched only when absolutely necessary. You need to keep your weight off that knee and postpone training for several days as prescribed by your doctor.

Swelling and phlebitis (blood clots in the vein) are also possible problems that you can encounter. Keep the swelling down by applying ice on your knee as prescribed. Phlebitis is eliminated by doing range of motion exercises that do not put pressure on your knees.

Give yourself time to heal after undergoing the surgery. Each person has their own individual schedule of healing. Just follow your doctor’s guidelines on wound care and physical therapy to prevent complications and promote rapid recovery.

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