With arthritis of the knee, it has been noticed that the more the patient of such a condition walks, the more the knee will hurt. Many people would thus be gravitated toward having arthritis knee surgery to get relief though there is some shocking and surprising news concerning such a course of action. According to a study conducted on surgery on elderly patients, it has been determined that there are potentially harmful effects to such a course of action, and that in fact, it will not significantly help improve the patient's condition.

Severely Impacts The Health Care Community

Such a surprising outcome of studies conducted on arthritis knee surgery may severely impact the health care community, and change the way in which will be performed in future on the, it is believed, more than 300,000 Americans that need to get treated for knee arthritis. Such surgery is no doubt performed to provide relief from the pain of osteoarthritis, and for the continual worsening of the joints due to wear and tear that is supposed to affect as many as twelve percent of the senior citizen population.

An arthritis knee surgery involves clearing out the debris and also repairing the affected cartilage that may have been damaged, and it would mean making tiny incisions so that the healing process takes place quickly. The study that was conducted had two kinds of patients in their study that included those that actually had knee surgery and those that had sham surgery. It was found that the latter kind of patients had no difficulty in climbing stairs and could walk faster than those who had had an actual arthritis knee surgery.

This is indeed quite alarming and along with the cost of having arthritis knee surgery that can total as much as five thousand dollars per individual and approximately one and a half billion for the industry, can lead one to think that wouldn't the patient be better off spending the money on something more useful and effective.

Such findings have even led many insurance companies into refusing to pay for arthritis knee surgery. In fact, there are a number of alternatives to consider such as using hot packs, taking pain relievers as well as cortisone shots, and surgery should only be considered as a last resort. Whatever may be the merits of such a study, it certainly does put some doubts in the minds of a number of doctors, which may lead them to using such an alternative only under certain circumstances like when the patient has an acute sports injury to ligaments.