Bilateral Knee Replacement: Weighing the Pros and Cons for Osteoarthritis Relief

Joint replacement: Bilateral knee replacement

Dr Tony Dunin, orthopaedic surgeon

To have an operation on both knees at ones is a good and difficult question to answer. It has one big advantage in that it's one recovery, a lot of people would say once they had one done, they wouldn't come back for the next one and it's only slightly more painful having both done at one time and only slightly longer recovery. There is however some concern that there may be increased risks of blood clots going from the league to the lungs with doing both at one time and so you will find something some surgeons will never do it and other surgeons are quite keen to do it at the one time.

I would only do it in patients who will and who are not elderly. For example, it is a big stress on the body, and you need to have a good heart and good lungs and generally be free least stoical to undergo have you both done at one time. In addition, I’ll leave it up to the patient, if the patient comes to me and say I would like to have both knees and if their eyes fit and well then, I will usually go along with it. However, if they don't raise it, I will usually not encourage them to take it on.

Judith’s decision to have bilateral knee replacement surgery

Judith Nguyen, osteoarthritis patient

oh I just couldn't move I remember one day before I had my nice tan I was going to a meeting across the road from Premier and Cabinet to the Health Department and I got halfway across the street and I got stuck, the pain was just so unbearable you know like rocks on rocks was just terrible. So, I stopped mid road and crept back to my office  and rang my orthopaedic surgeon in Hobart and he said I'll come and see me so I rolled up to  him the next day and had some x-rays done and he said yes we'll definitely do the left one and then six weeks later we'll do the right, and on you know I'm working full time so I said  to him is it possible to have both done it once  and he said well it's not very common but I  think you would be able to cope with it well.

Judith’s experience after having bilateral knee replacement surgery

Judith Nguyen, osteoarthritis patient

I had the bilateral total knee replacements I think it was Wednesday afternoon, then on the Thursday morning the medical staff came round and said right Judith and we're going to get you up. Okay, it's a bit early but so I swung both legs over the side of the bed and stood up of course was excruciating, but the pain was completely different from arthritic pain it was the pain associated with you know muscles and tissues and in a surgical pain it wasn't that rocks on rocks grinding, grating pain that I'd had prior  to the operation, and the other thing is I had a  goal about what I wanted my knees to do because I worked at Premier and Cabinet every so often I had to go over to the Premier's office and he had  this gorgeous furniture , but the seats was so low  and I’d get over there and I’d get into one of  these seats and then I just couldn't get up, well not elegantly so, I said to the orthopaedic surgeon what amount of flex do I need to get out of the low chair and he said 140 degrees so that  was my goal so after I stood up about the next day after that we started on physio and my goal was  to have that flex before I left hospital in fact. Because, I'd had both knees done I’d be lying on the bed doing the exercises, you know the cycling all that sort of stuff and then would  get measured and I was determined that they were both going to be the same. I mean my left knee was more damaged it took a little longer, but I still remember the day it reached the saying level of movement as the right knee and then when I left hospital, I did another three or four weeks of intensive physio, maybe twice or three times a week. I went to a private physio then and continued and I’ve done that with all my joint replacements I had intense physio after the operation. With my joint knee replacements, I did ask the orthopaedic surgeon how long recovery time would be and he said that the most people it's about 12 months before you feel wow this is worth it. Personally I arrived at that a little earlier probably  because I was back at work and didn't have time to think about myself but it is probably  about 12 months after that you get to the point  where you actually even forget you've got joint  replacements because there's no pain you can do what you want to do largely and then you  have to remember to respect your joints.