Joint replacement surgery could relieve severe, long-standing pain in large joints like the hips, knees, and shoulders, as well as small joints in the hands and feet. The high-quality, fellowship-trained surgeons at Premier Orthopedic Specialists of Tulsa have performed thousands of successful joint replacements. To find out if they can relieve your pain and improve your quality of life with their expertise in joint replacement, call the office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, or book an appointment online today.
Joint replacement (arthroplasty) is a surgical procedure that your surgeon performs to treat the most severe joint pain and dysfunction. During joint replacement surgery, they remove the damaged or diseased parts of the joint and implant artificial components.
These components create a prosthetic replacement composed of metal, plastic, ceramic, or a mixture of materials that operate just like a healthy joint.
Premier Orthopedic Specialists of Tulsa performs a variety of joint replacements, the most common being knees and hips. They can also replace ankle, shoulder, wrist, elbow, thumb, and toe joints.
Joint replacement is an effective solution to joint damage or disease where there’s no other way of repairing the joint. While severe trauma to the joint may sometimes lead to replacement surgery, the vast majority of procedures result from advanced osteoarthritis.
This common disease develops slowly after years of joint use. The cartilage on the ends of your bones that protects the joint gradually wears away. Instead of sliding over one another, bones catch and rub, causing inflammation, pain, stiffness, and weakness that worsens over time.
There are treatments available that reduce the effects of arthritis, including specialist physical therapy, hyaluronic acid injections, and steroid injections into the joint. However, in some patients, the pain and disability worsen to a point where these treatments are no longer effective.
At this point, your surgeon at Premier Orthopedic Specialists of Tulsa might suggest joint replacement.
The surgical team at Premier Orthopedic Specialists of Tulsa gives you either a general anesthetic, so you’re asleep during the surgery, or a local or regional anesthetic with a sedative, so you’re awake but relaxed.
Your surgeon makes incisions into your skin to access the joint and removes the diseased bone and cartilage. Then they prepare the healthy bone that remains for the artificial components.
Joint replacement may be total, where your surgeon replaces the ends of all the bones in the joint, or partial, where they replace a diseased section but retain any healthy bone.
The surgeons at Premier Orthopedic Specialists of Tulsa also perform complex procedures like reverse total shoulder replacement.
When appropriate, your surgeon uses minimally invasive and arthroscopic techniques to carry out part or all of your surgery. This approach reduces tissue damage, pain, and healing time, but is only suitable in some cases.
If joint pain is taking over your life and nothing you do seems to help, contact Premier Orthopedic Specialists of Tulsa to see if joint replacement is the answer. Call the office or book an appointment online today.
