Arthritis is affecting the wellbeing of more and more young people today, and Hyderabad surgeons have sought to address this problem with a new surgical technique. The High Tibial Osteotomy (HTO) knee surgery, will be able to provide relief to patients suffering from severe arthritis, and is aimed at delaying joint replacements at an early stage.
The procedure-HTO knee surgery is a stop gap operation, which helps younger patients avoid knee transplants early in their life. According to orthopaedic surgeon Professor Dr Karl P Benedetto from Austria, and Dr K Raghuveera Reddy, shoulder and knee surgeon, Sai Institute of Sports Injury and Arthrosocpy (SIASA) arthritis of the knee joint is caused due to damage of the cartilage. Unlike when you fracture a bone, when your cartilage is damaged it doesn’t heal on its own.
Therefore, when you continue to use your knee and ignore the pain, you can put your wellness at risk of gross denigration of the cartilage and severe arthritis. As a result the normal alignment of your knee changes, giving you a bow-legged deformity which can lead to your arthritis becoming progressively worse, as well as the pain you feel on the inner aspect of your knee, they said. Knee joint replacement is the ultimate solution for this condition, but this is not advisable when you’re in your forties, because the replaced knee joint prosthetic can wear out in 10-15 years. This will require another knee joint replacement by the time you reach the age of 50, and the doctors said this can have its own complications.
Hence, the new HTO knee surgery could particularly be useful for 40-55 year-olds. According to various studies, this stop-gap operation can relieve the majority of the pain for up to 10-15 years, but after that period you may then require a knee replacement. In order to change the alignment of your leg, your HTO surgeon will create a surgical break in your shin bone just below the knee joint. This will relieve the pressure on the inner arthritic bearing of your knee and redistribute the forces around it. Studies have shown that, after the realignment of joint axis by this surgery, your cartilage will regenerate to a good extent.
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