A knee replacement involves creating a template so that a prosthesis can cap onto the bone, says HealthMaker Andrew Feldman, MD. In this video he explains how a knee replacement can be thought of as something more common-- like a crown on your tooth.
The easiest way to think about it, is something that's more common like crown on your tooth. Okay, when you have a tooth that's rotten or has a cavity in it, what the dentist will do is they will coat to make a peg of some sort and then right on top put a cap, okay. That's basically what a knee replacement is.
A knee replacement is, it's like wood chop, but very elegant wood chop because you're sawing, you really have a saw, you got drills and it's real fun and you're doing all that stuff but you're basically creating a certain template so that the prosthesis can cap on to the bone, and you have one on the femur, which is the top part of the bone, and on the tibia and then that's made out of metal, very hard metal called titanium and the middle area is a spacer called polyethylene most of the time, and that is actually the cushioning effect of the knee.
The knee is a complex joint that's susceptible to disease, such as arthritis, and injury, such as runner's knee. Get exercise, nutrition and lifestyle tips to keep your knees healthy and strong, and prevent knee pain.
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