When I first started doing total knee replacements, we never really thought about the skin incision and how impacted our patients. I used to perform my knee replacements using a standard straight incision vertically based, that run down the midline of the knee – it made the knee easier to perform. 4-5 years ago, we switched to using a curved lateral incision around the knee, which was performed for the sole purpose of improving a patients capabilities to kneel on their knee. Fast forward 5 years, and it has become such a positive attribute and change to the way I perform our kinematically aligned knee replacements due to the functional ability to kneel in more of my patients, but also because it is an aesthetically pleasing scar. Small changes can have positive benefits for our patients.
What is the prosthesis made of
All of our knee replacements are Cobalt Chromium. The plastic is a highly specialised polyethylene. The composition of the implant is designed to increase longevity. Under an electron microscope, the surface of a CoBalt Chromium implant is extremely smooth. In a knee replacement, there is no metal touching metal, as the plastic sits between it.
For more information of knee replacement composition – visit this link.
What proportion of patients can kneel?
We estimate that roughly 80% of our patients can now kneel after their procedure. Some factors that decrease the ability to kneel include other incisions/cuts on the skin that are placed at the front of the knee.
Is the curved incision longer?
It can be longer if you consider that it wraps around the side of the knee, rather than a straight up and down incision, but for some reason it appears shorter, due to the curved nature of the incision and the fact that it disappears better into the skin folds.