Arthroscopic SurgeryArthroscopic Surgery
Most of the sports injuries like ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) tear, Rotator Cuff Tear, Bankart’s tear, Meniscal tear etc. are now a days treated by a Minimal Invasive Procedure called Arthroscopy. It involves entering a joint through a small hole with a 4 mm camera called Arthroscope. We visualize all the internal structures in a fluid medium. The role of this procedure is to diagnose and treat the problem at the same time. It started with knee injuries but now we can handle shoulder, elbow, ankle, wrist and hip joint issues with arthroscopy. Most of these procedures are day care or overnight cases. The advantages are no tissue damage, minimal blood loss, post operation comfort, fast rehabilitation and early return to sports activity.
It is just like a laparoscopic surgery is for abdomen, arthroscopic surgery is a similar technique where all knee surgeries rather most of the knee surgeries and shoulder surgeries are done by endoscopic technique.
This technique is mostly useful in Sportsmen who have ligament injuries or rotator cuff injuries. The advantages are, as we are not cutting open the joint there is no pain, there’s no bleeding and there’s no post-operative stiffness.
As all these Sportsmen want to return to their pre-injury level of performance, this technique enables them to do that with much ease.
As we are operating through keyholes, the patients recover within three to six weeks and most of them join back their Sports and practice from three to four months after the surgery.
So arthroscopic surgeries are applicable mostly in knee joint where we are repairing their ligaments, there menisci and all other major injuries, which were earlier either neglected or were operated by open technique. In shoulder joint, we are operating rotator cuff injuries Bankart injuries, labral injuries and recurrent dislocation of the shoulder.
Now arthroscopic technique is expanding to other joints also like elbow, wrist and ankle. So this is one technique that people really want to utilize as far as surgeons are concerned and patients are also now getting aware, that for joint injuries or sports injuries arthroscopic technique is the treatment of choice.
