In most cases the undersurface of the knee cap is also replaced with a plastic surface so that this articulates with the femoral surface. Knee replacement in 1998 are more successful than hip replacements with a lower incidence of revision. The actual procedure involving knee replacement involves either general or epidural anesthesia with a four to six day hospitalization. In most cases patients donate two units of autologous blood to be used in the postoperative period. Weight-bearing begins immediately the first postoperative day.
Patients usually use a walker for a period of one to two weeks, going to crutches and then a cane.
People are off all walking aids anywhere from three weeks to two months. This can be due to either stiffness or ache or swelling in and about the knee. If this occurs, in some cases the prosthesis can be saved and the patient taken back to the operating room, the knee irrigated with antibiotic irrigation and then be on antibiotics. In some cases if this does not respond, then the entire prosthesis must be taken out and antibodies given for six weeks and then another attempt at re-implantation of the of the prosthesis must occur. In an extremely small percentage of cases, conceivably if the infection could not be controlled, then one is left a knee fusion in which the femur and tibia are fused in one bone.