Day before surgery
Eat normally throughout the day, BUT do not drink or eat anything after midnight.
Day of surgery
Before surgery
The morning of your surgery you will be required to be at the hospital at very early in the morning to be admitted into the orthopaedic ward of the hospital. At this point the nursing staff will record your vital signs, get details of your medical history and medications taken and take some blood samples, groin and nasal swabs for testing. You will be sent for a chest x-ray to check for any issues with your heart and lungs.
In addition, a prosthesis planning x-ray will be taken for Dr van der Plank. He will use this x-ray for measurement to fine tune the details of the surgery.
You will be visited by the physician who will have the results of your chest x-ray , blood and swab tests and will examine you to ensure you are fit to undergo surgery.
You will be required to bathe with a special antiseptic soap, the morning of the surgery.
On the day of the surgery you will be visited by one of the anaesthetist on Dr van der Plank’s team, who will have the file of your medical records and will ask you more questions to assess the best anaesthetic treatment possible.
On the day of surgery, blood thinning treatment will commence. Patients need to take anticoagulants strictly according to the doctor’s instructions in order to prevent blood clots and complications.
You will then be taken into surgery to get your new knee fitted.
Duration of surgery
Knee-replacements surgery typically takes between 2-3 hours
After surgery
After surgery you will be taken into recovery where you will be monitored until you have woken up from the anaesthetic. You will then be moved to the High Care ward. This is necessary because we like to carefully monitor your pulse, blood pressure and urine output for the first 24 hours after surgery. You will also have an IV drip to replace fluid and administer pain medication. There might be a re-transfusion drain, with a special filter so that you receive your own blood back. A catheter might also be present and will be removed once you are able to move well enough to use a bed pan or the bathroom. Your legs will be numb after the anaesthetic block, but the effects should wear off in about 8 hours.
Patients are usually moved back to the orthopaedic ward the day after surgery, at which point the nursing staff will aid you in fitting compression stockings to your legs to prevent thrombosis.
On the day after surgery, the physiotherapist will visit you in the ward and start your rehabilitative therapy.
Hospital stay
After surgery, the average hospital stay will range between three to four days. Dr. van der Plank strongly recommends that patients spend at least four days in a subacute (step down) facility after being discharged from hospital. It is recommended that patients get approval for, and arrange a place in one of these facilities before surgery.
Please note: the steps described above are based on the average knee replacement experience, it may vary from case to case.