Surgeries
Joint surgery is usually the last option of treatment. Rheumatoid arthritis patients do not consider having joint until they found that their medications cannot make any progress on their own. Late staged rheumatoid patients always from unbearable and severe pain, so they find joint surgeries their last resort. Joint surgery is a major operation for RA patients so they should talk to their doctor to know more about it and work together to ensure the best outcome. The percentage of success of joint surgeries is relatively high as these surgeries often restore the ability of movement and help eliminate rheumatoid symptoms dramatically.
Patients with late-stage rheumatoid arthritis usually have one of the following operations:
- Total knee replacement is believed to be the most effective procedure to cure rheumatoid. Surgeons replace your whole joint or the most damaged part with a prosthetic piece. Surgeons do not recommend this kind of surgery except for patients with a severely damaged joint. The inserted prosthetic part usually lasts unworn for 15 to 20 years, so some patients may need to replace them once throughout their lifetime.
- Tendon repair operation could be necessary for patients whose tendons ruptured due to the surrounding inflammation. Tendons are the terminal parts of muscles attached to the bones which are critically important in joint movement. This surgery may involve lying in bed for several days followed by weeks of rehabilitation.
- Synovectomy is a surgical operation in which the surgeon removes the damaged tissues of the synovium. Synovial tissues and fluid which are responsible for reducing joint friction, are believed to be the most affected part of rheumatoid inflammation.
- Arthrodesis surgery which is known as joint fusion is a common operation for rheumatoid patients. This procedure includes removing cartilage and fusing bones of the joint manually when patients could not have a joint replacement.
