Knee replacement is an invasive procedure, and you can never go back. Once the decision is made, though, Dr. Coates makes sure patients most between the ages of 65 and 80 understand total knee replacement requires a tremendous amount of therapy. Motion has to be regained while healing is taking place. That means you re doing therapy while your knee is still sore. It s not severely painful, but it can be unpleasant.
Therapy continues for the duration of the five-day hospital stay and a minimum six months after.
Maybe one or two percent of patients require any supervised therapy after a month. Top of page While all knee replacement procedures vary slightly, one thing remains constant. When we step up or squat down, the pressure behind our kneecap is four and a half times our body weight. And with just a little piece of plastic as the replacement for the kneecap in a mechanical knee, extra weight decreases what s already a finite amount of wear. But patients have to regulate their weight.