Managing Your Knee Pain at Your Desk Job
Knee pain is prevalent during and after activity, but what happens when it bothers you while sitting at your work desk? Learn tips on managing knee pain even while you’re hard at work at the desk.
5 Benefits of Arthroscopic Surgery
There are a lot of different types of surgery available today, especially for orthopedic problems. While open surgery was the best option in the past, newer and less invasive options are now available. One of these types of surgeries is known as arthroscopic surgery.
At Alpha Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, our team helps you decide what type of surgery is right for your specific injury. Our five skilled orthopedic specialists get you a diagnosis quickly, so you can get back on your feet after your procedure.
What is arthroscopic surgery?
An arthroscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that our doctors use to treat and diagnose conditions in your joints. Because it’s a minimally invasive surgical procedure, it’s often done on an outpatient basis, and you can go home the same day.
Our doctors recommend arthroscopic surgery when you’re having pain in your joint that doesn’t seem to get better with conservative measures. They may also schedule you for an arthroscopy if imaging shows damage or inflammation within your joint.
To perform this type of surgery, you’re under general anesthesia, and are asleep for the procedure. Our doctors make a few tiny incisions in your joint, and use an instrument known as an arthroscope to see inside. An arthroscope is basically a tiny camera and light that goes into your joint and shows the image on a screen in the operating room.
Once the arthroscope is inside your joint, our doctors are able to diagnose issues within your joint. If they’re able to fix anything, they use tiny instruments to repair any tears or damage within the joint.
Conditions that this surgery can treat
In an orthopedic setting, arthroscopy is actually used for a variety of different conditions. Arthroscopic surgery can be done on just about any joint, but the most common joints that it’s performed on include:
- Knees
- Hips
- Shoulders
- Ankle
- Wrist
- Elbow
Arthritis is one of the problems that’s often found during a joint arthroscopy. This condition causes pain and inflammation in your joint, along with degeneration of your cartilage. However, other conditions that can be treated arthroscopically include:
- ACL reconstruction
- Rotator cuff repairs
- Meniscus repairs
- Labral repairs
While not every orthopedic issue can be fixed using minimally invasive surgery, it’s come a long way over the years. This means if you injure yourself and need surgery, our team may be able to fix it without large incisions and long recovery times.
The many benefits of arthroscopic surgery
Surgery isn’t something you’re probably looking forward to, but with arthroscopic surgery, you can rest easy. This is because there are so many advantages to arthroscopic surgery versus the traditional open surgery that you’re used to.
For example, arthroscopic surgery can be done as an outpatient procedure, meaning you get to go home the same day. Traditional open surgery usually requires you to stay overnight in the hospital. But that’s not the only advantage — there are other benefits to arthroscopic surgery as well, including:
- Decreased blood loss
- Shorter recovery time
- Less infection risk
- Smaller scar/incision
- Less damage to surrounding tissues
You’ll also likely experience much less pain than you would with open surgery. This is a huge benefit, because it decreases the amount of pain medications you’ll need during your recovery.
Although there are limits to arthroscopic surgery, it has the ability to help our surgeons diagnose and treat a variety of orthopedic conditions and sports injuries.
If you’re dealing with joint pain and need treatment, call our team at Alpha Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at one of our three convenient locations to schedule an appointment today. You can also book a consultation with us online as well.
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