Knee replacement surgery is an extremely commonly performed operation in the United Kingdom with over 80,000 performed a year. The term knee replacement is actually not a particularly good description of the operation, which should really be thought of as a resurfacing operation. So in this procedure, make a small cut on the front of the knee, and take away the arthritic surface of the bottom of the thighbone, or the femur, and then a very small sliver of arthritic bone from the top of the shinbone. And then these are replaced with metal surfaces and a sock on the bottom of the thighbone, and a small plastic bearing surface is placed between the two. The operation itself should only take approximately 45 minutes to one hour, and I would anticipate most of my patients requiring a one-night stay in a hospital for this procedure.
