How is osteoarthritis treated with surgery?

If conservative treatments such as medication and physical therapy can't control your osteoarthritis symptoms, your doctor may recommend surgery. This might seem like a drastic step, but every year thousands of Americans undergo surgical procedures to gain freedom from stiff, painful joints.

The surgical procedure for osteoarthritis that almost everyone has heard about is joint replacement. The idea of swapping a bad joint for a brand new one might have once seemed like science fiction, but today it has become routine. In this procedure, a surgeon replaces damaged joint tissue with an artificial implant. The implant may be made of metal, ceramic, plastic, or some combination of these materials.

There are also surgical procedures for treating osteoarthritis that may be less familiar. They include:

• Arthroscopy. In this procedure, a surgeon uses small, flexible instruments to remove growths such as bone spurs and cysts that cause or worsen joint pain.
• Osteotomy. If your bones are misaligned, parts of a joint bear too much weight and pressure, which can cause pain. Osteotomy re-aligns bones.
• Joint fusion. In some cases, a damaged joint can be removed altogether. Using pins or plates, a surgeon fuses together the two bones that were connected by the joint.