Senior Citizens Are Urged To Put Off DePuy Knee Surgery Unless Absolutely Necessary

Orthopedic surgeons make radical knee replacement surgery seem as routine as changing the oil on your car, not the dangerous, life-altering surgical procedure it actually is

Thursday, July 26, 2018 - Most total knee replacements are performed on senior citizens in extreme pain from degenerative osteoarthritis of the knee joint. Seniors are basically a trusting lot and most rely on their physician to recommend the course of treatment that is in their best interest, not one that merely pays the surgeon the most. Senior citizens were raised at a time when it was considered blasphemous to question a doctors motivation. What seniors fail to realize is that today, human nature being what it is, a doctor is first and foremost in business to make money. Many times asking an orthopedic surgeon if they need knee replacement is tantamount to asking a barber if you need a haircut, or asking a clothing salesman if you need a new suit. Seniors should be advised that total knee replacement should be looked upon as a treatment of last resort, not recommended lightly and that the patient should first attempt to manage osteoarthritis with a program of proper diet, exercise, physical therapy, and if necessary, over-the-counter medications. Only if the pain is still unbearable should total knee replacement be considered.

Total knee replacement on senior citizens is much different than on younger patients. Seniors usually suffer from bone loss due to osteoarthritis and that alone could cause the DePuy knee to never fit correctly, debond, twist and turn, and leave a patient in excruciating and constant pain, a pain much greater than their original arthritis. As a matter of fact, osteoporosis that continues after knee replacement surgery could cause the tibia to weaken and shrink causing the device to loosen requiring revision surgery.

A second valid reason to think twice before knee replacement surgery is that the procedure requires months of strenuous post-op physical therapy that many seniors are incapable of performing. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments will be cut, stretched and otherwise removed during total knee replacement surgery and it could take years of working out to ever restrengthen them to the condition they were once in. In addition, knee patients are required to maintain a normal weight and exercise the legs regularly. Unless you are in great shape to begin with such physical activity in ones 70's and 80's is unrealistic to expect. If physical therapy is not undertaken there is little chance a DePuy knee replacement patient will ever return to pain-free mobility.

The DePuy knee replacement device has proven to come "unglued" or otherwise debond at the point where the shin bone (tibia) is sawed in two and inserted into the artificial knee sleeve. Such debonding is due to normal changes in bone structure and density of the patient as much as to the degree of physical stress placed on the artificial knee. An unacceptably high percentage of knee replacement patients, estimated to be in the range of 6-8% of knee replacement recipients never return to even a modest level of physical activity that they once enjoyed and live in fear of falling off of a curb or down a flight of stairs during everyday physical activity. Thousands of persons are filing DePuy knee lawsuits, but that can't return them to mobility.

Senior Citizens Are Urged To Put Off DePuy Knee Surgery Unless Absolutely Necessary

Orthopedic surgeons make radical knee replacement surgery seem as routine as changing the oil on your car, not the dangerous, life-altering surgical procedure it actually is

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