Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
What you can expect
By Mayo Clinic staff
During the procedure
You'll receive either a general or spinal anesthetic.
- General anesthetic. This type of medicine is typically given through narrow flexible tubing inserted into a vein in your arm or hand. You are asleep and don't feel or remember the procedure.
- Spinal anesthetic. With a spinal anesthetic, the medicine is delivered to an area very near your spinal cord. This will numb you from your waist to your feet.
Measures to help prevent blood clots in your legs may include:
- Compression stockings
- Air-filled tubes that rhythmically squeeze your legs
Fixation devices, such as plates or screws, may be used to hold the pieces of bone in place as you heal.
After the procedure
You may be able to go home later in the day of your surgery, or you might stay in the hospital for a night or two. You'll need to use crutches for approximately two months so that your bone will heal properly. Rehabilitation may take as long as six months and will include exercises designed to:
- Strengthen your thigh muscles (quadriceps)
- Increase your knee's range of motion
- Improve your balance
- Martin GM, et al. Total knee arthroplasty. http://uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 8, 2009.
- Osteotomy and unicompartmental knee arthroplasty. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00354. Accessed June 8, 2009.
- Surgical treatment of joint diseases: Surgical therapy. In: Goldman L, et al. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/142280826-3/850076489/1492/1060.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2805-5..50304-9--cesec15_13385. Accessed June 8, 2009.
- Spangehl MJ (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. June 16, 2009.
- Surgical techniques for high tibial osteotomy. In: DeLee JC, et al. DeLee & Drez's Orthopaedic Sports Medicine: Principles and Practice. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2003. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/142424814-5/850372119/1103/979.html#4-u1.0-B0-7216-8845-4..50030-2--cesec377_3900. Accessed June 9, 2009.
