Too Many Are Opting For Knee Replacements Too Early In Life

DePuy Knee Lawsuit News

Knee replacement experts In Europe recommend total knee replacement patients may be better off simply living with the pain

Tuesday, June 4, 2019 - Doctors in the United States could learn a lot from their colleagues in Europe who are questioning whether so many people really need knee replacement surgery. When it comes to whether or not a person should have knee replacement surgery, the numbers just do not add up. As patients that have had knee replacements age, the chances of needing another knee replacement increases. The average age of a knee replacement patient is 69 years old, meaning that there are as many 49-year-olds having knee replacements as 89-year-olds, statistically speaking. DePuy knee replacement lawsuits handled by top national attorneys are helping families harmed by defaulty products and offer a free consultation.

Potential knee replacement patients question how long will their knee replacement last. The standard answer is that most last 15-20 years. That is, however, an optimal estimate as no one is sure exactly how long they will last and no one really knows how many future knee replacements a patient could need. No two knee replacement patients have exactly the same physiology, nor the same athletic or sedate lifestyle. It is conceivable that ten percent or more of younger, more active knee replacement patients could require two or three additional knee replacement during the course of their lifetime and that each one will be accompanied by a period of time where they are rendered immobile and in excruciating pain. When an artificial knee becomes infected, locks up, comes unglued, causes a tibial fracture or otherwise malfunctions, there is no therapy that will fix it. The only alternative is major surgery to replace the knee once again. Most orthopedic surgeons are fixated on performing knee replacement on the very elderly to avoid having to respond to this dilemma. Remember, the more knee replacements a doctor can convince a patient to have, the more money he makes.

London's Daily Mail has been looking into the ethics that underlie the explosion in the number of knee replacement complaints and has elicited the opinion of several leading experts in the field. The Daily Mail interviewed Dr. Richard Spencer Jones, a knee replacement surgeon at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Shropshire, England. Dr. Jones thinks agrees that people are being steered into having their knees replaced at the slightest sign of knee pain rather than waiting until the pain gets so bad that there is no alternative. The Daily Mail writes: "He (Jones) is not suggesting that we should be more robust about pain, rather that he fears the fallout from people swapping their own rickety knee for a replacement too soon, as some of these people will live well into their 90s and that knee is likely to need replacing a couple more times - [these will be] increasingly challenging procedures with more risks and potential complications'. In fact, 20 percent of knee replacement patients are not happy with the result and 5 percent feel worse off after, says Philip Mitchell, an orthopedic surgeon at St George's Hospital and the Fortius Clinic, both in London."

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