What is Recovery Like After Knee Replacement Surgery?
Total knee replacement recovery time can involve some time off from everyday tasks such as driving and household chores. An outpatient partial knee replacement, which is generally limited to younger patients with less significant damage to the structures of the knee, tends to have a faster recovery as less of the knee is operated on.
Most patients can begin to care for themselves and resume most normal activities just 6 weeks after knee replacement surgery. Driving after knee replacement surgery may resume in just 3 to 6 weeks’ time. Full use of the knee joint happens at about 4 to 6 months after surgery, although a complete recovery is expected at 1 year for patients with the most severe knee problems. Age, health, and individual differences in healing are also factors that play a role in knee replacement downtime. In Dr. Mellano’s minimally invasive knee replacement method, the surgeon makes a shorter incision and uses a least-invasive technique to expose the knee joint — often relying on an arthroscopic surgical camera and quadricep-sparing methods — with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing pain after knee replacement surgery as it heals.
