The Ultimate Guide to Arthritis Surgery

Whether you're having total joint replacement or just a minor repair of damaged cartilage, you should learn as much as possible about the procedure before you enter the operating room. Try to find a surgeon who has extensive experience with the operation you'll be having, and be sure to ask plenty of questions. One question, in particular, that should be at the top of your list: What will this surgery actually accomplish? RELATED: What are the Best Exercises for Relieving Arthritis Pain?  Asking this question is especially crucial if your doctor recommends arthroscopic debridement surgery to remove bits of loose cartilage from an arthritic knee. This operation is performed roughly 650,000 times each year, but its value has come under fire. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Baylor College of Medicine compared the operation with a phony procedure in which patients received small incisions on their knee, but didn't have actual surgery. Both procedures seemed to improve pain and stiffness, but the real surgery wasn't any more effective than the fake surgery. While the value of arthroscopic knee surgery for arthritis is doubtful, many other procedures have...