Arthroscopy
Arthroscopy
The ability to look into joints throught small incisions has become perfected in the past 30 years. The word "arthroscopy" comes from the Greek "joint examination" and involves use of instruments about the thickness of a pencil to examine the inside of various joints and to perform surgery in those joints. It has now become unnecessary in many cases to cut a joint open to do some very complicated procedures, such as ligament reconstruction and fracture fixation. A wide variety of instruments have been developed for arthroscopic surgery, and every year more and more refinements are made.
The knee and shoulder are the most common joints on which arthroscopic surgery is done. In many cases the knee can be treated with local anesthesia and sedation, while the shoulder usually requires general anesthesia (being put to sleep) for arthroscopy. Knee conditions treated in this way are cartilage tears, patella (knee cap) alignment disorders, and mild arthritis. Ligament reconstruction procedures, such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), require a major anesthetic - spinal or general. Rotator cuff repairs in the shoulder can be treated arthroscopically with the addition of a small open incision on the top of the shoulder. Certain elbow, wrist, ankle and hip problems can also be treated with the arthroscope. All of these cases are done in the operating room at Northern Hospital of Surry County as outpatient, or "come-and-go" procedures.
The beauty of arthroscopy is that work can be done through very small incisions, called portals. this eliminates a lot of the tissue damage from opening up the area to get down to the area of concern in the joint. At Blue Ridge Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, we refer to this as "collateral damage," and limiting this causes less pain and earlier return to activites. It is easy to understand that fewer problems occur if you can get into a house by opening a door rather than by taking the door off the hinges and removing the door frame. This is not to say that arthroscopy is painless, just that compared to arthrotomy (open examination of a joint) there is much less pain and injury.
Dr's. Refvem and Williamson both have a great deal of training and experience in the use of the arthroscope and enjoy using it help to help patients with a variety of joint problems.
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© 2005 Blue Ridge Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, P. A. • 708 South South Street • PO Box 472 • Mount Airy, NC 27030
Phone: 336-719-0011 • Fax: 336-719-0381 • Email:
info@blueortho.com
• Website: www.blueortho.com
