Can I kneel after a total knee replacement?

0:00 · Kneeling after surgery

Hi, I'm Dr Chien-Wen Liew. Today, we're going to talk about whether or not you can kneel after a knee replacement. I'm an orthopaedic surgeon from Adelaide, South Australia, and I work at Orthopaedics 360. I'm a hip and knee replacement specialist. And today I thought it would be interesting just to go over kneeling. Now, many of my patients come in to talk about kneeling after a knee replacement. As apparently the word on the street is that you can't kneel on a knee replacement now.

0:34 · The role of incisions

Whilst I used to believe this were true, and I used to believe it was due to pressure from the implant on the skin. What I've learned over the years is that it is actually due to the way that our incisions are placed on the skin when travelling for a conference. About four or five years ago, I came across a surgeon and he was telling me about his patients who could kneel on their knee.

Just with a simple incision change, and since then, we have changed all of our incisions. The standard incision for a knee replacement goes down the middle of the knee. It is the easiest and most straightforward incision. The internal incision of the knee is on the inside of the knee. And whilst we aim to try to keep things simple, having our patients kneel after the surgery is something that I feel is a very functionally and positive situation.

1:24 · Techniques and tips

How we cut the skin now is very different. I place a lateral curved incision that goes around the knee. This means that our patients can actually kneel on their knee after the operation. We start on things like the bed and the couch, and then progress to things like carpet and grass as necessary. Things like concrete or gravel will still be uncomfortable to kneel on after the surgery.

But that is something where a kneeling pad or knee pad may be helpful with, so yes, you can kneel after a knee replacement operation. It is mostly down to how our incisions are placed, and the other thing to mention is that with our curved incision around the outside. You find that most people have a slightly smaller, numb patch off to the side, which means that kneeling becomes a little bit more straightforward because that sensation on the front patch of the skin is all intact after the operation.

Hope that clarifies a few things and I look forward to keeping you updated on other enhancements and changes we do with our hip and knee replacements. Like and subscribe this channel and I'll see you for the next one, thank you.

Transcript edited lightly for readability.