Osteoarthritis is a progressive disease that affects the joints in your body, especially your knees. If you're suffering from pain, stiffness, and inflammation in your knee, and it’s affecting your everyday activities, you could be living with osteoarthritis.
If you're unsure of the next step, Dr. Steven J. Svabek and his team offer cutting-edge treatments for knee pain and arthritis. Dr. Svabek is an orthopedic specialist offering joint replacement surgery when other methods don't successfully relieve your symptoms.
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition that leads to damage within your joints. It can affect any joint but is extremely common in your knees and hips.
Dealing with knee osteoarthritis can significantly affect your everyday activities, making walking and climbing stairs difficult. You may have pain that's intermittent or experience stiffness in the morning or after a long day at work.
The longer you let knee osteoarthritis go without treatment, the worse your symptoms become. It's vital that you seek treatment at the first signs of a problem to decrease the likelihood of more invasive treatments.
Dr. Svabek treats osteoarthritis conservatively at first unless your condition is so severe you can't perform your everyday activities or your pain is affecting your work and sleep.
Severe cases of knee osteoarthritis require more aggressive treatment. After reviewing your symptoms and obtaining images of your knee joint, Dr. Svabek may recommend a knee replacement if your arthritis is severe enough to affect your normal activities.
If Dr. Svabek evaluates your knee and determines you have mild to moderate osteoarthritis, he may recommend conservative treatments to ease your symptoms. While these treatments don't get rid of arthritis, they help slow the disease's progression.
One of the first treatments he recommends is physical therapy to help you increase strength around your knee joint and improve mobility. Physical therapy also helps you understand how to exercise with osteoarthritis to enhance your symptoms and reduce pain.
Along with physical therapy, Dr. Svabek may recommend other treatments to slow the progression of osteoarthritis, including:
While many people succeed with conservative treatments, they don't work for everyone. If you're still suffering from pain and stiffness related to osteoarthritis in your knee, Dr. Svabek may recommend surgery.
Before Dr. Svabek suggests a knee replacement, he needs all the facts. He performs a detailed evaluation of your knee joint. He looks over imaging studies to determine the extent of osteoarthritis.
If you've tried multiple conservative measures without significant relief of your knee pain and Dr. Svabek finds considerable damage in your joint, you may be a good candidate for a knee replacement.
Dr. Svabek also suggests a knee replacement if your arthritis is so severe you can't complete your daily tasks. If you're struggling to walk or climb stairs, it's time to consider surgical intervention.
The goal of a knee replacement is to eliminate your arthritis pain and improve functionality in your joint.
During the knee replacement, Dr. Svabek removes the damaged areas in your joint and reshapes your bone to allow for the prosthetic device.
He then measures your joint space to ensure the proper fit of the prosthetics. Once he prepares your knee, he carefully places and secures the prosthetic pieces and closes the incision.
After your knee replacement, you need several months of physical therapy to improve your pain and mobility. When you're completely healed, you forget what it's like to have stiffness and pain in your knees.
If you're struggling with knee pain, don't hesitate to call our office at 954-466-9140 today to schedule a consultation with Dr. Svabek or request an online appointment.
