According to the National Institutes of Health, patients may want to consider knee replacement surgery if they have a stiff, painful knee that prevents them from performing even the simplest of activities, and other treatments are no longer working. More than 700,000 people line up for knee replacements each year. The average hospital stay after knee joint replacement is usually three to five days but the recovery period takes a lot longer than that, and it can be painful.
According to the Arthritis Health Center, in knee replacement surgery, doctors remove the damaged cartilage and replace it with new joint surfaces in a step-by-step process. Patients will have intravenous antibiotics for about a day after surgery. They will also receive medicines to control pain, and perhaps, medicines to prevent blood clots. It is not unusual to have an upset stomach or feel constipated after surgery. Dr. Hugh Morris, an orthopedic surgeon at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Fla., has advanced and implemented a new pain management technique. This procedure reduces post-op pain by up to 95 percent. It also reduces the need for high doses of drugs. Patients have less chance of experiencing the complications that usually come from using drugs like nausea, dizziness and urinary issues. By inserting a femoral nerve block high into the thigh, non-narcotic supplements are used to numb the knee. It keeps the knee numb through a pain pump for two days after the surgery, making the rehab process a much less painful and lengthy one.