Touro

Careful, comprehensive assessment of your pain is essential to identifying the best treatments available to you. Your role, as the patient, is in assessing pain is of great importance in this process. Pain is invisible, only you understand what you are feeling and how it affects your quality of life.   Here are some guidelines to help you work effectively with your health care providers in assessing your pain and in deciding if joint replacement is right for you.   Does constant pain, that does not respond to other treatment, keep you awake at night andinterfere with your work or other activities including walking, going up and down stairs, and getting in and out of chairs? Do you find it hard to walk more than a few blocks without significant pain? Do you require daily narcotic medications at full dosage to control or relieve your pain?

• Have you tried all other options to achieve pain relief? Have the use of arthritis medications, physical therapy, rest, exercise, joint protection, and steroid injections yielded unsatisfactory results?
  
  
• Are you prepared to conscientiously follow a rehabilitative regimen that requires months of exercise and physical therapy to restore joint function?
  
  
• Do you experience chronic knee inflammation and swelling that doesn't improve with rest or medications?
  
  
• Are your joints deformed? Do you have bowing in or out of your knee?
  
  
• Are your joints stiff? Do you have trouble straightening your knee?
  
  
• Are you unable to tolerate or do you have complications from pain medications?
  
  
• Do you fail to substantially improve with other treatments such as cortisone injections, physical therapy, or other surgeries?
  
  
• Are you in good physical condition? Risk of complications will be low if your overall physical condition is good.
  
  
• Are your goals realistic? The rehabilitation process and the expected outcome of the surgery must be viewed realistically. Joint replacement surgery is not a cure, but it should offer restored comfort and function.