Arthroscopy

Surgeon with the camera in one hand and an instrument in the other.

View of the joint cartilage of the femur above and the tibia below.

How is an arthroscopy performed?

Arthroscopy is a surgical procedure, where the surgeon operates on the knee through several small cuts (portals), and using long, fine instruments.

Light is shone into the knee through an instrument called an arthroscope, which has a small lens at the far end to angle the light beam. The same instrument has attachments to allow an inflow under pressure of sterile water-based fluid to expand and wash the joint, and an outflow under suction to extract any tissue which has been cut away.

The surgeon and assistant observe the image on a monitor at head level, and have to navigate from that image, so it is quite a complex discipline to master. 

Back to top

How painful is a knee arthroscopy?

There are several considerations when it comes to pain after an arthroscopy:

• usually three or four small incisions, or 'portals' are made in the knee. These are not particularly painful and heal up readily, but occasionally a portal may give problems with local infection and inflammation.
• the irrigation fluid to open up the knee cavity is pumped in under pressure, and some will escape into surrounding tissues, so the knee might be quite swollen and stiff for a few days.
• some people may suffer from back pain from the position they are placed in on the operating table
• there are some nerves around the knee that most surgeons will know to avoid, but cutting one may cause an area of numbness with much later the possibility of a painful neuroma as the nerve tries to heal itself

Back to top

Other relevant links -

Arthroscope, Portal, Arthroscopic surgery, Arthroscopic meniscectomy

Back to top

Forum discussions

• Orthoscopy and arthoscopy - A discussion about semantics. In fact neither is correct. The correct term is arthroscopy...

Back to top