What Is a Joint Revision? [Video]

Video Transcription:

For anybody having a joint replacement, we describe them in categories. A primary joint replacement is somebody who has a knee that has never been operated on, or if it has, they still have all their normal parts. So that’s a primary surgery, a primary joint replacement hip or knee. Once we get beyond that, then we are entering into revision joint replacement. And a revision surgery is really anything that is now a surgery after somebody has had that knee replacement, already has that metal and plastic in their knee. It changes things. It really changes the landscape. That first surgery to replace the joint, it is a surgery that involves soft tissue trauma we call it. You know, it’s an injury to the soft tissue. So there’s scar tissue. There’s things that happen as it’s healing, and that’s all a normal part of healing. But once we take that into consideration, a revision then has to account for that. For anybody having a revision surgery, we talk about the solutions and I always tell patients if we are planning for another surgery, I always have a plan A, I have a plan B, a plan C and so on because I need to have all of those things available to fix the problem. Anytime I go into the operating room for somebody, I want to be the last person to operate on that joint for them. And that we can do everything in my power to make it that last surgery.

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