Knee pains are very common in old people and in athletes who suffer from severe leg and knee joint injuries. There are several ways you can alleviate or get rid of the knee pain. Arthroscopy is one of the ways recommended by knee doctors to get rid of different knee and joint issues. Let’s talk about why you need a knee arthroscopy.

What Is Knee Arthroscopy?

Knee arthroscopy is a surgical procedure which is done on patients who have severe pain in their knees and surrounding joints. It is considered to be a less extensive surgical procedure, because during an arthroscopy, the doctor uses an instrument which is known as an arthroscope. An arthroscope is a small contraption which contains a camera. It goes into your knee and shows the doctor a clear image of where the damage is and how severe it is. The arthroscope is prodded into the body via small cuts around the affected area, which makes it a less invasive procedure.

The process is very easy and it takes less than an hour for the process to get completed. It is also considered to be the top procedure people go for if they are suffering from knee pains and injuries, because the recovery and healing time is fast.

What Happens During A Knee Arthroscopy?

An important question might come to mind if you are considering getting knee arthroscopy done, what happens during the process? Well, here is a brief overview of what exactly happens.

A detailed plan is given by the doctor some days prior to the procedure. You will need to stop taking certain medications which your doctor knows, before the procedure. You will also need to fast for almost 12 hours before the surgery. You will need to stop eating and drinking, because it will give better results. You might also be prescribed some sort of pain relief medication, if you are worried about the pain afterwards.

As far as the process is concerned, an anesthesia is given to you in the affected area so that it becomes numb. Then small one-inch incisions are made, and they are cleaned with a saline solution. These incisions will help to prod the arthroscope inside your flesh. Then the arthroscope is inserted and the surgeon will evaluate the entire area and find where the damage lies and how severe the damage is.

Once the damage is identified, the surgeon will take some pictures through the screen and will prepare a report for you. Then, a treatment plan can be put forward.

Why You Need A Knee Arthroscopy?

Here are reasons why you need a knee arthroscopy.

If You Have Torn Muscles

This is where most of the knee pains generate from. You could have torn muscles and ligaments, which are causing extreme pain in your knees. The muscles can be torn via impact or too much stress on the muscle. For this, the doctor will need to see your knee and evaluate how far the tear is. This is where you need an arthroscopy to get a better understanding of the pain and the muscle tear.

To Reconstruct Your ACL

Anterior cruciate ligament or ACL, is a very important knee muscle, which keeps your knee stable. In ACL injuries, you will also need a knee arthroscopy because the surgeon needs to evaluate how bad your ACL is. This will help the surgeon in getting a better picture of the ACL and will give you a preferred treatment plan according to the extent of the injury.

For Seeing Fractures

Sometimes, there might be a lot of small fractures in your knees. This can be caused by either falling down a lot on your knees or if something heavy rolled over your knees. For the evaluation of the fractures, you will need to get a knee arthroscopy done. The extent of the fracture is important to determine, so that the doctor can predict a healing time.

There you have it! Not only do you know what knee arthroscopy is, but you also know whether you need to go through it or not. You have yourself covered with a lot of important information about knee arthroscopy. However, there is no replacement of consultation from a knee specialist Woodbridge.