Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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outpatient setting. Surgeons must identify individu- als who are healthy and motivated to undergo this type of procedure. In order to go home the day of surgery, patients must be reasonably fit and mobile, and understand that they will experience some pain. Their providers will take steps to treat their pain successfully, but patients must be prepared to endure some discomfort while recovering at home. It's important to educate patients about how they can reasonably expect to feel after surgery in order to set realistic expectations. Doing so will set them — and your facility — up for success. 4 2 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 Resurfacing parts of knees damaged by osteoarthritis while preserving healthy cartilage might be the best treatment option for patients with limited degenerative joint disease. A grow- ing body of research supports this partial approach to knee replacements. Here's a look at some of the findings. • Lateral unicompartmental knee arthroplasty results in excellent post-op joint function and implant survivorship in properly selected patients, according to a study published in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (osmag.net/4ZzGuD). The researchers note robotics, custom implants and navigation technology offer promise for helping surgeons perform the technically demanding approach. Additionally, they say improvements in the design of lateral-specific implants, as well as an increase in availability of the implants, might lead to increased intraoperative efficiencies and improved outcomes. • Another study published in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery involved 258 individuals with knee osteoarthritis who responded to sur- veys asking about their preference between total and partial knee replacements based on their perceptions of the risk of complications, post-op joint function, knee implant technology and chance of needing another operation within 10 years (osmag.net/kqYVG3). Overall, the opinions of the respondents were essentially split between the two procedures. The results also indicate patients with good functional knee sta- tus tended to prefer partial knee replacement and those with worse joint function said they would opt for total knee arthroplasty. Partial knee replacements are associated with lower complication rates, but higher revi- sion rates, compared with total knee replace- ment. Importantly, complication and revision rates were the most important considerations to the respondents. Based on these findings, the researchers suggest surgeons should focus on these factors when discussing treatment options with patients. • Research published in The Lancet says total and partial knee replacements are equally effec- tive in treating patients with late-stage isolated medial compartment osteoarthritis and result in similar rates of compilations and reoperations (osmag.net/Fth3WF). However, note the study's authors, partial knee replacement should be the treatment of choice for these patients based on the technique's lower cost of care. They based their findings on a five-year multi- center randomized trial involving 528 patients, half of whom underwent partial knee replace- ments. Surgeons used their implants of choice during the procedures. Both procedure types were performed in an average of 70 minutes. At five years' follow-up, patients in both groups experienced similar clinical outcomes and reported similar joint function and pain scores. However, patients who underwent partial knee replacements reported higher satisfaction scores, were happier with how their knees felt after surgery and were more willing to undergo the procedure again. Additionally, say the researchers, partial knee replacement was the more cost-effective treatment option. — Outpatient Surgery Editors RESEARCH ROUND-UP Partial Knees Provide Promising Results