Types Of Knee Replacement
What are the types of knee replacement? Knee replacement which is also known as knee arthroplasty is the process of doing the surgery for the purpose of replacing the weight bearing surfaces of the knee joint to help in the relieving of the pain and disability which it is causing. The surgery is done for the knee diseases in which the most common disease includes the rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. The surgery is very complicated and so the elements of risks are also higher and it is most commonly done osteoarthritis which does not usually cause the pain or inflammation. The major causes of pan include the cartilage defects and ligament tears etc. The different types of knee replacement are available depending on the intensity of the pain like osteoarthritis is the most common cause of pain in elders.
Depending on the mechanical stability there are four major types of knee replacement which were provided by the design of the artificial knee. The first category or type of knee replacement includes the non constrained implant which is the most successful and common type of artificial knee implant. The term of none constrained is given because the artificial components which are inserted into the knee have no link with each other. Also there is no stability built in to the system but it is depending on the person’s own stability of the muscles. This helps to maintain the stability of the knee in the efficient manner which is the main feature of the artificial knee.
The other types of knee replacement is the semi constrained implant which is the device that helps in providing the stability for the knee. It is made by the feature of providing more stability to the patients. If the surgeon removes all the bonds or the ligaments, than the semi constrained implant is more preferred by the surgeons when they feel that new knee will be more stable by this implant.
Other types of knee replacement used by the surgeons are the constrained and hinged variety implants. This type of implant is the least preferred by the surgeons and is never the first choice of implanting the knee. In this type of implant, with the help of hinged or attachment mechanism, the two components of the knee joint are attached together. This type of knee replacement is only used when the knee is very unstable and they are not supporting the other types of implants for the knee and the ligaments are not supportive enough. This is used when the knee is very much damaged which is mostly in the case of old people in whom the revision replacement process is taken by the surgeons. The reason of not having the most preferred by the surgeons is due to the reason that it is not lasted for the longer period of time as in other types.
The fourth type of knee replacement is unicondylar knee replacement which replaces only half of the knee joint. This surgery is done when the damage on the knee is only in one side which is more damaged but the surgeons prefer to do the whole replacement of the knee.
