Overview
The knee is the largest joint in our body that supports the movement of legs and is an essential requirement to perform most of our daily activities. Due to injury, disease or wear-and-tear, knees can get damaged, causing severe pain and impaired function.
Total Knee Replacement (TKR), a procedure performed to replace the affected knee joint with artificial material, serves as a saviour for patients struggling with severely damaged knee joints. TKR can be a life-altering procedure for patients, significantly reducing or even eliminating pain and discomfort in the knee, and restoring mobility and function.
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The safety and efficacy of TKR procedure have improved gradually over the decades. The longevity and durability of implants have also increased considerably since their invention.
What is Daycare, Fast Track Total Knee Replacement (TKR) Surgery?
TKR has been a time-consuming procedure with close to 3 hours of surgery and considerable hospital stay post-surgery. However, recent years have witnessed a growing trend in Daycare, Fast Track Total Knee Replacement procedures for ideal patient candidates.
Fast Track TKR is a sophisticated procedure currently performed only at few centres that have the necessary infrastructure and an expert team. With this new revolutionary minimally invasive technique, TKR surgery can be completed in just one hour with a cost reduction by close to 30 per cent along with reduced chances of infection.
The procedure involves using advanced surgical techniques performed with miniature instruments while administering regional anaesthesia limited to the leg area. The miniature instruments used in the procedure ensure minimal cuts (incision), that together with regional anaesthesia significantly reduces pain, trauma, infections, complications and side effects usually associated with surgery, besides helping in faster recovery of the patient.
For a better understanding, Fast Track (or Daycare) TKR program and the related approaches are classified into 3 phases as per the proceeding of operation:
Pre-operative phase involves:
- Pre-operative investigations and necessary cross consultations
- Complete patient assessment for surgery
- Adequate patient education (ex. dos & donts and exercises to be done post-surgery)
- Infectious prophylaxis (antibiotics before surgery)
- Preemptive analgesia (treatment before surgery)
Intra-operative phase involves:
- Regional aneasthesia
- Complete pain control
- Minimal blood loss
Post-operative phase involves:
- Multimodality, effective pain management using different analgesia techniques
- 24/7 nurse care for next 48 hours
- Home monitoring with all the necessary equipment
- Intensive care doctor consultation and home visits under supervision of the operating surgeon
- Home physiotherapist visit and early ambulation with full weight bearing the immediate next day
- 24/7 Apollo Home care facility with full monitoring equipment comfortably at the patient’s home
- Apollo E – ICU facility with virtual monitoring the patient from main ICU in Hospital
- 24/7 emergency ambulance service to shift the patient anytime from Home to Hospital if required
Advantages of Daycare, Fast Track TKR Procedure
With minimal incision, minimal exposure, minimal blood loss and shorter hospital stay, Fast Track TKR has revolutionized the healthcare industry. Daycare fast track TKR also brings down the total expenditure or cost of surgery by approximately 30 per cent compared to standard TKRs. However, choosing the right patient with no comorbidities is crucial. Some of the benefits of Daycare, Fast Track TKR include:
- Faster recovery
- No overnight stay in the hospital
- Minimum or no disturbance to the regular routine
- Economic advantages (Up to 20%)
- Minimal pain owing to unique anaesthesia methods
- Faster mobility
- Faster return to normalcy
- Less mental stress or disturbances (especially in the elderly)
- Reduced risk of cross-infection at hospitals to the patients and their relatives (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic)
Fast Track Surgery for Knee Replacement is Safe in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic
While COVID-19 pandemic remains prevalent in India and around the world and is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, Daycare, Fast Track TKR is safe a surgical procedure to reduce the spread of the disease.
Furthermore, with fast track TKR surgery, those patients who are worried about COVID-19 infection (the possibility of which is low) may be more at ease while scheduling their surgery knowing that they are likely to go home the same day and avoid an overnight admission.
Conclusion
More and more patients can now take advantage of fast track surgery for knee replacement because of the advances the field has recently made with newer anaesthesia protocols and novel multimodal pain reduction strategies. Early mobility post-surgery is crucial to the recovery process for almost all surgeries, and perhaps more so with fast track TKR.
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad Performs South India’s first daycare, fast track TKR
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad has the distinction of performing South India’s first daycare, fast track TKR. The revolutionary surgery was performed on a known diabetic 65-year-old female patient, by a team led by Dr K J Reddy, Senior Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad. The patient was discharged the same evening after 8 hours of post-surgery observation. She has fully recovered since and is going about with her routine with ease and great comfort.
For ideal candidates, daycare, fast track TKR (total knee replacement) surgery is safe and effective, with low readmission and complication rates on par with non-daycare TKR.
With complete infrastructure, latest equipment, the expertise of eminent consultants including competent, dedicated technicians and nurses, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad offers a comprehensive and collaborative pathway of care from pre-operative screening and counselling through intra-operative management to post-operative recovery and outpatient rehabilitation
For more information, please call : 1860-500-1066
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