A total of 90 minutes.
Knee replacement surgery is done under one hour in most cases. Methodist Hospital provides skilled operating room teams who make total joint replacement reliable and event-free. Once you enter the operating room, the anesthesia staff delivers proper general anesthetic medicines. The nursing team then “preps and drapes” the surgical knee. At this point, my P.A. Tyler Fiebrich and I commence minimally invasive knee replacement surgery. At times, orthopedic fellows or orthopedic residents scrub in to watch our technique.
Modern general anesthesia is preferred, along with local tissue blocks, to provide extended postoperative pain control. Anesthesia techniques have evolved to avoid the side effects from previously used halogenated gasses. More mature patients should not worry about mental confusion (from the previously used halogenated hydrocarbon gasses). Our goal at Methodist is to have patients walking without pain within 4 hours of surgery. Confusion-free general anesthesia and local tissue blocks make this possible. In fact, many patients go home within 6 hours of total joint replacement surgery.
Patients of advanced age of those with medical comorbidities may be asked to spend one night on Dunn 7, where nurses specializing in total joint replacement care work with our physical therapy-mobility teams. We would like to see “out of bed-in the hallway walking” until 10 p.m. for those who are admitted. The next morning, physical therapy does a final check, and most patients leave for home before noon. In selected cases, an internal medicine doctor is assigned to assure that general health issues are stabilized.