Stating that joint disorders have increased due to today's living conditions, Egepol Hospitals Orthopedics and Traumatology Specialist Prof. Dr. Mehmet Hasan Tatari said that successful results can be obtained with joint-preserving surgery.
Pointing out that joint disorders can be seen at any age, Prof. Dr. Tatari stated that the degree of these problems varies depending on age.
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Hasan Tatari said, “Especially in advanced ages, knee cartilage degeneration, also known as calcification in public, negatively affects the quality of life. If the patient’s daily functions such as walking are impaired, if their pain has increased and other treatment methods have failed, then we apply knee prosthesis. The knee prosthesis operation takes approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. The patient stands up and walks the next day. They are discharged in 3 days. The time it takes to return to normal life varies from person to person. The process after this continues under the supervision of a physician.”
CARTILE TRANSPLANTATION IS APPLIED
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Hasan Tatari, who noted that there are some disadvantages of knee prosthesis in younger patients, continued as follows: “Knee prosthesis can loosen over time and may need to be replaced. For this reason, we do not apply prosthesis in younger patients between the ages of 40 and 60. This is where joint-preserving surgeries come into play. In this method, some medical and surgical interventions are performed without damaging the joint. The two most important elements of treatment in people with cartilage degeneration are losing weight and exercising. When we look at the difference between men and women in particular; a female patient who comes to us with a similar condition cannot walk, while a male patient can walk because his muscles and bones are stronger.”
Tatari: “The second stage involves intra-articular injections such as hyaluronic acid, PRP, stem cells, and collagen. These do not change the course of the disease, but provide a painless life for a while. This treatment can be repeated if necessary. Cartilage transplantation, which is performed within the scope of joint-preserving surgery, is a procedure performed on younger patients who do not have calcification in their knees and only have damage in a certain area of their knees. Cartilage can be taken from the person’s own body or can be obtained from a cadaver,” he said.
BOTH THE CURVATURE IS STRAIGHTENED AND THE PAIN IS RESOLVED...
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Hasan Tatari provided the following information: “If the degree of calcification in the joint is not very severe and the age for prosthesis application has not yet come, patients experience cartilage loss, pain and a related parenthesis leg appearance, especially in the inner parts of their knees that face each other. If this condition is not treated after a while, both the deformation of the leg increases visibly and the pain increases. In the patient group, which is between the ages of 40 and 60, if they are not extremely obese or have a rheumatic disease, we perform a correction surgery. With this operation called High Tibial Osteotomy, we cut the tibia under the knee joint and correct it, thus correcting the curvature in the leg. Thus, we ensure that equal amounts of load are given to both sides of the knee joint. Thanks to this surgery, we correct both the leg deformity and the pain. Thus, we prevent or postpone the possibility of using a knee prosthesis that may be required in the future to a great extent.”
