What Is an Arthroscopy?

Here’s What You Should Know About Knee Arthroscopies

As even the youngest, most limber, and pretentious kids know — well, teenagers can be quite pretentious, so maybe not all of them know recognize it as fact — growing old generally wreaks havoc on the human body. Although some people live to be supercentenarians — people aged well over 100 years old — without excessively major health problems, well over 99 percent of old folks deal with overall pain, a lack of stamina, trouble thinking clearly, not being able to converse as well, and the list goes on.

Joint problems are one of the most popular health problems found in senior citizens. Osteoarthritis, one of the most common causes of deteriorating joints, also comes along with arthritis pain. Plain-old arthritis and osteoarthritis both are major culprits for pushing people through with knee replacement surgeries.

One of the most popular procedures for knee replacement is called an arthroscopy.

What exactly is an Arthroscopy?

It’s OK if you don’t speak fluent doctor — neither do I. Arthroscopy is also known as keyhole surgery or even what is seemingly an incomplete phrase — arthroscopic.

Endoscopes are tools popular in medicine that feature a long, flexible, narrow tube with a light and camera on its far end. Using endoscopes for knee surgeries — remember, the process is called arthroscopy — involves cutting a small slit around one’s knee. Next, after the surgeon has assessed the patient’s knee and how to go about fixing it, another small incision is placed near the endoscope’s hole to perform surgery on the knee without opening up the entirety of the skin.

A primary benefit of arthroscopies is that they don’t take as long to heal from as other procedures, especially those in which more than two tiny holes are used. Further, joints that are fully opened — they’re not opened fully in arthroscopies — have ligaments, cartilage, veins, and tons of other structures that take longer than their keyhole counterparts do.

Facts about Arthroscopies

Knee arthroscopies and arthroscopies are the same procedure. The latter is the correct term, whereas the former is similar to saying “exact same” — both words mean the same thing, so why use them two times in a row?

Exercise is an effective way of boosting knee utilization.

Lastly, a cocktail of glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and viscosupplementation are three powerful alternative methods to keyhole surgery.