Arthroscopic Surgery

Arthroscopic Surgery

Major surgery doesn't have to be a major inconvenience thanks to a new technique called arthroscopic surgery. Here's Dr. Firstname M. Lastname, an Orthopaedic Surgeon with Medical Center/Hospital, to tell us more.

What is Arthroscopic Surgery?

With arthroscopic surgery, we use a flexible video scope to look at the joint during the operation. The surgeon performs the surgery as he or she is looking at a video monitor. The advantages of arthroscopic surgery are many: much smaller incisions, faster healing and quicker recovery.

What injuries can you repair using Arthroscopic Surgery?

We can diagnose and repair any joint, like the rotator cuffs in the shoulder. We can reconstruct a shoulder or repair an ACL tear in the knee. You hear a lot about football players suffering an ACL tear.

What exactly is it?

The ACL is the ligament in the interior of your knee that connects the tibia bone in your lower leg to the femur bone in your upper leg. The ligament becomes torn when it's subjected to a great amount of stress and pressure.

How do you repair an ACL injury?

To repair an ACL, I take three tendons from the hamstring muscle and graft them to the ligaments in the knee. It's a state-of-the-art procedure, and there's no decrease in performance of the hamstring, either. We use an arthroscopic surgical technique to actually repair the knee so the incisions are very small. A small incision, about an inch and a half is required to remove the hamstring tendons. Rehabilitation is also much easier and faster using this technique.