Knee Arthroscopy

Knee Arthroscopy at New Hall Hospital

What is knee arthroscopy?

During arthroscopic knee surgery, your surgeon inserts a small camera, called an arthroscope, into your knee joint. The camera displays pictures on a video monitor, and your surgeon uses these images to examine and diagnose your knee condition. Once your surgeon has diagnosed the problem, they may decide to treat your knee during the same procedure by guiding miniature surgical instruments to repair or remove damaged tissue.

Knee arthroscopy is usually carried out under a general anaesthetic as a day case procedure, typically taking between thirty minutes to an hour.

Knee arthroscopy can diagnose or treat knee injuries including:

• Remove or repair torn knee meniscus (cartilage between bones in your knees)
• Wash out and remove loose fragments of knee cartilage or bone resulting from wear and tear that get caught in your knee joint. An alternative treatment to knee replacement surgery if your arthritis isn’t too severe.
• Reconstruct torn anterior or posterior cruciate ligaments
• Trim damaged articular cartilage
• Treat a displaced patella
• Remove swollen synovial tissue
• Internal fixing of knee fracture

Knee arthroscopy surgery allows your surgeon to diagnose many common knee problems and treat them at the same time, negating the need for another procedure.

Additionally, knee arthroscopy requires only a couple of small incisions rather than completely opening up your knee to perform the surgery. With the use of an arthroscope and miniature tools, your surgeon can easily perform knee surgery safely and with less complication, less pain, less joint stiffness and, often reduced recovery time compared to open surgery.

The complication rate for knee arthroscopy surgery is very low. If complications do occur, they are usually minor and treated easily.

Complications following knee arthroscopy can include: infection at your knee joint, severe knee pain and stiffness, accidental damage to the nerves around your knee joint, blood clots and accumulation of blood in your knee.

If you decide to pay for your treatment, Ramsay offer an all-inclusive Total Care package, where a single one-off payment at a pre-agreed price, delivering direct access to all the treatment you need for complete reassurance. You can also spread the cost of your treatment with finance options available. Find out more information about your knee arthroscopy cost here.

A knee arthroscopy may be covered by your medical insurance policy. We advise you to check directly with your insurance provider and get written confirmation before commencing treatment.

Knee arthroscopy surgery is a day case procedure so you should be able to go home the same day. Before you go home, one of our physiotherapists will talk you though some exercises to get your joint moving and, recommend exercises to aid healing and your recovery.

Your knee will most likely be swollen for at least a week and walking may be uncomfortable.

Your knee arthroscopy recovery time will be dependent upon your specific procedure and varies by patient. Your surgeon will discuss with you how long it's likely to take to recover and give you instructions on what activities to avoid, such as lifting and sport, until you are fully recovered.

Knee arthroscopy is keyhole knee surgery that allows your doctor to see inside your knee joint using a camera inserted through small skin incisions around your knee. It can diagnose and treat a wide range of knee injuries and problems that cause pain, swelling, stiffness, restricted movement and, impact on your everyday tasks, sleep and quality of life and, are not responding to non-surgical treatments such as physiotherapy, medication and injections.

Ramsay Health Care offers rapid and convenient access to knee arthroscopy performed by our highly experienced and renowned consultant orthopaedic surgeons in hospitals local to you. Exercise advice is provided by our physiotherapists to support your earliest recovery from knee arthroscopy.

New Hall Hospital Specialists

Mr Rakesh Choudhary

Mr Rakesh Choudhary is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the New Hall Hospital, Salisbury and the Cherwell Hospital, Banbury who specialises in hip and knee surgery.
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Mr David Cox

Mr David Cox is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at New Hall Hospital in Salisbury, Wiltshire who specialises in hip, knee and shoulder surgery.
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Mr Ivar Kask

Mr Ivar Kask is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at new Hall Hospital in Salisbury, Wiltshire who specialises in lower limb surgery.
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Mr Phil Pettit

Mr Phil Pettit is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at New Hall Hospital in Salisbury, Wiltshire who specialises in hip and knee surgery.
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Mr Makarahalli Prabhakar

Mr Makarahalli Prabhakar is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in Wiltshire
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Mr Jonathan Quayle

Mr Jonathan Quayle is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in Salisbury, Wiltshire who specialises in Hip and Knee Surgery
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Mr Peter Rauh

Mr Peter Rauh is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at New Hall Hospital who specialises in foot, ankle and knee surgery.
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Mr Sridhar Sampalli

Mr Sridhar Sampalli is an Associate Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at New Hall Hospital in Salisbury, who specialises in hip and knee surgery
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Mr Gurdip Shergill

Mr Gurdip Shergill is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in Salisbury, Wiltshire who specialises in knee and shoulder surgery
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Mr Leonidas Vachtsevanos

Mr Leo Vachtsevanos is a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon in Salisbury, specialising in joint preserving knee operations and hip and knee replacement surgery.
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Mr Ivor Vanhegan

Mr Ivor Vanhegan is a Consultant Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgeon in Salisbury who specialises in Hip & Knee surgery
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Mr Stephen Veitch

Mr Stephen Veitch is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in Salisbury, Wiltshire who specialises in hip and knee surgery.
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Related Treatments

Partial Knee Replacement

A partial knee replacement, also known as unicompartmental knee replacement, is surgery that replaces only one damaged compartment in your knee with implants.

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ACL Reconstruction

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a surgical procedure designed to repair a torn or injured ACL, a crucial ligament in the knee. It involves using a graft of new tissue, typically a tendon, taken from another part of your knee to restore stability.

Find out more

Knee Replacement

Knee replacement is knee surgery to repair worn arthritic knee joints or knee injuries using an artificial knee joint to help reduce pain and restore movement in your knee.

Find out more

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