Knee Replacement – The history of knee replacement surgery
Knee replacement procedures have undergone fairly
radical transformations since they were first devised over half a
century ago. Knee replacement surgery now provides relief for
thousands with joint complaints.
The knee joint is one of the most complicated and convoluted in
the body and it is only in the last 30 or 40 years that it has been
fully comprehended. As such, knee replacement operations have come
on leaps and bounds in the last few decades and a successful
procedure can provide a pain free future for an individual
suffering from a joint complaint such as osteoarthritis.
Knee Replacement – Pieces of a Jigsaw
The mechanics of how the knee moves are quite complex and when
the joint is destabilised by conditions such as osteoarthritis, it
can prove extremely painful and the mobility of the individual is
often severely diminished. Knee replacement procedures are becoming
increasingly common in the UK and there are approximately 120,000
hip and knee replacement operations each year. The steady increase
witnessed in the numbers of knee replacement patients is largely
due to the fact people are living longer and that there is an
increased emphasis on fitness and sport in modern times, which can
have the effect of increasing the stress that people place upon
their joints.
Knee Replacement – Rapid progression
The first reported attempt at a form of knee replacement is said
to have been in 1860 when a doctor called Ferguson endeavoured the
first surgical technique of knee replacement which involved damaged
bone being removed from the knee and a form of cushioning placed
between tibia and fibula. It wasn’t until the 1940’s, however, that
knee replacement procedures actually involved replacing parts of
the knee. At this time, one part of the damaged knee would be
replaced by a prosthetic part. In 1971, a doctor called Gunston
developed the first knee replacement procedure that treated each
compartment of the knee as separate entities and, with this, modern
knee replacement surgery began to take shape. In today’s medical
environment, knee replacement is a fairly common procedure and it
helps to alleviate the pain associated with many debilitating knee
complaints.