 
What is minimally invasive surgery?
Prosthetic substitution of joints is one of the greatest advances in orthopaedic surgery of the last century and consists of the substitution of the arthritic joint for an artificial joint called a prosthesis. The combined efforts of engineers and surgeons has made possible the development of materials and techniques to enable this. The great advancement of recent years has involved carrying out these techniques using smaller incisions (minimally invasive surgery) resulting in less damage to the bone, the muscles, tendons and ligaments achieving a better and faster recovery.
The most common reason to place a prosthesis of the knee is to eliminate pain and incapacity caused by the destruction of the joint, thereby improving the quality of the patient's life. When joint destruction is significant, the option to place a prosthesis may be considered as long as other medical treatments or surgical alternatives have failed to eliminate the pain and incapacitation.
What are the advantages?
- A better and faster recovery of the knee.
- A wound in the skin of some 7-10 cm (compared with the 25-30 cm of conventional surgery).
- Reduced lesions to muscles, tendons, ligaments and soft areas of the joint, meaning a reduced inflammatory reaction and less pain.
- We associate infiltration techniques and anaesthetics that almost completely eliminate the pain, allowing the patient a fuller recovery.
- Rehabilitation begins immediately after 48 hours for a greater recovery and higher degree of movement of the knee.
- The patient can even walk on the day of the operation and practically without pain.
- Being less aggressive towards the knee, the procedure reduces blood loss and therefore the need for transfusions – they are practically non-existent with this technique – thereby avoiding the risk of contracting diseases.
- Hospitalised time is reduced given that recovery is quicker and better and less painful. The large majority of patients are discharged on day 3 (compared with 10-14 days needed with conventional surgery).
How is a knee prosthesis placed?
The prosthesis is placed during an operation with the patient under anaesthesia (the type of anaesthesia is the decision of the anaesthesiologist) and the damaged joint is substituted with artificial materials comprised of diverse metal alloys, at the femur and tibia and on occasions also the patella, placing in between them a high-density plastic designed to allow mobility most similar to that of a normal joint.
Orthopaedic surgeons subscribe to the concept of minimally invasive surgery in the area of arthroplasty aiming not to disturb the structures in the approach to the joints.
In minimally invasive surgery the size of the incision is between 50 and 75% smaller than that made with conventional surgical techniques, but the damage to the skin isn't the only important factor. Its great success lies with the reduced number of lesions when approaching the joint, with less disturbance to the tendons, muscles, ligaments and soft tissue of the joint, so that a reduced inflammatory reaction occurs which facilitates a raster recovery while improving the post-operative mobility of the knee and reducing pain.
As well as all this is the fact that with a less aggressive approach to the knee, blood loss, which is typically significant in this type of procedure, is greatly reduced which diminishes the need for blood transfusions.
The concept of surgery has changed and the success of our procedures does not solely lie with a smaller lesion of the joint, but in our complete approach to pain, pain which normally characterises this procedure when using the conventional technique. And within our protocol we include a comprehensive approach to pain with different pharmaceuticals and anaesthetic techniques that together, with the reduced damage that the minimally invasive surgery causes, allows a greater and faster recovery of the patient who may even walk without any pain on the same day as the operation.
The greatest benefit of the intervention is the disappearance of pain, although following the intervention it is normal to experience some discomfort in the knee which is typical for the surgery and may last a few weeks or months.
Patients who choose our team's procedure with the modern technique of minimally invasive surgery follow a procedure protocol that allows them to walk after 12-24 hours with the aid of a walker, initiate rehabilitation at 48 hours after the intervention, which they continue on a daily basis, and are typically discharged between 48 and 72 hours after the operation, drastically reducing the amount of time they are hospitalised. The usual time with conventional surgery is between 10 and 14 days.
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