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Dr. O'Connor describes the treatments for knee arthritis.
Dr. O'Connor:
So there’s two, there’s two treatment approaches. The first would be what can we do to avoid surgery, but yet help you with your symptoms and make your life better and prevent the arthritis from getting worse. That be, don’t get fat, do the right kind of exercise, and take some relatively safe medication to help with your pain.
Unfortunately, for many patients their arthritis is going to get worse to the point where those things aren’t helping anymore, and that’s when we think about surgery. And the surgery that we think about is either a partial knee replacement or what we call a total knee replacement. And that depends on how much arthritis is in the knee and the age of the patient and various factors. But the surgeries are really highly successful and really have dramatically improved quality of life for patients.
About Dr. O'Connor, M.D.:
Dr. Mary O'Connor, M.D., was accepted as a resident in orthopedic surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York in 1985. She joined the orthopedic surgery staff at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida in 1991, and since 2005 has served as department chair. Dr. O'Connor cares for people with hip and knee arthritis, failed joint replacements, and pelvic tumors.