In India, the most common joint replacements are done for the knee joint, followed by hip and shoulder. Knee replacement largely depends on the age and degree of arthritis. When patients come in at a very early stage, only one half of the knee is affected Actually the knee has three compartments, an inside compartment, outside compartment and knee cap compartment. When one component alone is affected, that can be replaced and is called as unicompartmental knee replacement. The other joint replacements include elbow, wrist, joint and ankle but they are very rare. These are age related but more hereditary.
It is usually following an injury or weight related. When overweight people come in for surgery. I advice them to first optimize their weight before going ahead with the replacement. We recently did a surgery on a 88year old man from Jodhpur, so age is not a barrier. The whole idea is that even if the patients is going to live only for a few years after the surgery, he should be as self –reliant and independent ad possible.