Patients who have severe osteoarthritis of the knee may require knee replacement surgery if other forms of non-surgical treatment failed to relieve their pain. In a small percentage of these patients, the damage in the articular cartilage is limited to just one half of the knee, with the other side almost normal.
In such cases, one of the options available is to just replace the diseased side instead of the whole knee. The advantage of this partial knee replacement over total knee replacement is that there is faster recovery with less pain and bleeding.
However, there is frequently the likelihood that the patient may require further surgery later on if the remaining part of the knee become arthritic and painful. The ligaments of the knee should be intact for this surgery to succeed.
This surgery is not suitable to patients who are:
- morbidly obese
- patients with rheumatoid arthritis as the disease affects the whole joint
- patients with marked stiffness in the knee
- those with a significant angular deformity.
