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Within Orthopedic Surgery, the most common surgical procedure is Knee Arthroscopy. The operation is typically performed at an outpatient surgical center or hospital. The patient is usually given a general anesthetic, and the procedure typically takes from 30-45 minutes.

Patients are on crutches for a day or day, take oral pain medications for less than a week, return to desk work in 2-4 days, and are usually fully recovered in 2-4 weeks (for simple arthroscopic procedures such as menisectomy, chondroplasty, loose body removal and lateral release).

Knee arthroscopy outcomes vary, but can be predicted based on factors like age and diagnosis. As a rule, if the patient is younger than 55 years with only one problem (like a torn meniscus, a loose body, a small area of joint surface damage) tend to have a higher probability of successful surgical outcomes.

Patients older than 55 years with greater than one disease process (the most common is torn meniscus with chondral damage ” commonly known as arthritis) have variable outcomes after knee arthroscopy [improved knee probability in 60% range for multiple disease process knees].

The best surgical outcomes are after Arthroscopic Lateral Meniscal repair, Arthroscopic Medial Menisectomy and Arthroscopic Loose Body removal. The least predictable surgical outcomes are with Arthroscopic Lateral Retinacular Release for patellar tracking problems and Arthroscopic Chondroplasty for arthritis.

Diagnostic Arthroscopy: Even in the age of high resolution 3T MRI scans there is still a role for the surgeon to only look inside the knee for diagnostic purposes.

This is done to assess healing of microfracture, healing of meniscal repair, looking for wearing of Total Knee Replacement, healing of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation, assessment of ligament injury (or a new injury or after surgical reconstruction of knee ligament), or when symptoms of the knee are unexplained even after a physical, Xray, history, and knee MRI.