Articles Tagged with defective knee replacement

In the United States alone, more than 600,000 people undergo a single or bilateral total knee replacement operation each year. This incredible figure makes total knee replacement the most common surgical procedure performed each year.  Next in line is the total hip replacement operation, of which there are between 300,000 and 400,000 performed annually in the U.S.  Between the two procedures, it is clear to see that joint replacement (arthroplasty) is big business.

While the vast majority of operations go well, there is always a risk of infection following a major surgery. Infection can destroy the artificial knee and cause a patient to need an above the knee amputation.  It is important to understand that no matter how much effort a hospital puts into sterilizing everything and making sure there are no germs present in the operating room, infections, including staff infections, are going to happen, and it is not necessarily anyone’s fault. Continue reading

A total knee replacement has become one of the most common surgical procedures in the United States, and these operations, along with total hip replacement procedures routinely rank high year after year.  In most cases, having a joint replaced with an artificial one is considered an elective procedure, but it basically comes down to a quality of life issue.  At some point, a patient will get tired of living with severe arthritis and opt for having the surgery. As we have seen over the past decades, that certain point in a patient’s life is being reached at a much younger age.

One of the reasons more and more patients are choosing to undergo the surgery each year is because more advanced techniques have been developed, and studies show that this means better outcomes for patients, shorter recovery times, and an overall increased satisfaction among patients.  What makes these study results interesting is that the patient satisfaction portion is usually based on information provided by the surgeons and not the patients themselves. Continue reading

There is no question that more people are getting total knee replacements than ever before.  However, unlike with an organ transplant, when a patient undergoes the procedure, they are not getting a joint from a donor, but rather having an artificial knee implanted. This artificial knee has been manufactured by one of a few medical device companies.

When a patient goes to their doctor and is told they will need to have a total knee replacement, the surgeon will typically tell a patient what type of device he or she would like to use and get an informed consent for the use of that particular type or model or artificial knee.  In the past, doctors just stated their preference and patients went along with that. Today, doctors are more commonly explaining the different types of artificial knees and having the patient make a choice.  One of the possible reasons for this is because of the problems they have seen with defectively-designed artificial knees. Continue reading