by Adam Clements & Kevin Delaney, WKRC | Click here to see the full story.

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Total knee replacement surgery has long been known for a painful, extensive recovery, but a newer minimally invasive technique is helping patients get better outcomes and return to strength faster.

During the warm summer months, more people tend to be active outdoors, which can lead to more visits to local doctors’ offices, particularly for knee injuries that call for surgery. Dr. Suresh Nayak, an orthopedic surgeon at OrthoCincy, said his team works to make the procedure as manageable as possible, even as recovery can be difficult early on.

“Total knee replacement, knee replacement in general is a very painful operation first of all we are putting weight on something that you just operated on,” Nayak said. “We have our therapists who work very diligently on getting your range of motion back in the first six weeks and that’s very painful.”

Nayak said knee replacement surgery has changed significantly over the past three decades as technology has advanced.

“Since my 30 years in practice here in Cincinnati, I don’t think anything we do is the same,” Nayak said. “One of our top priorities here at OrthoCincy is how do we restore function? How do we get people back to what they want to do? Part of that is the surgical insult.”

The approach described by Nayak is designed to be less invasive by bypassing tendons and using a sub-vastus, or muscle-sparing, technique that goes around the quadriceps muscle. The goal is to help patients regain full strength more quickly.

Nayak said the procedure uses CT scans and robotics to help ensure implants are placed correctly.

“So, we use utilize CT scans and robotics to make sure the implants are put in correctly,” he said. “All we’re doing is we’re replacing eight to ten millimeters of bone off your thigh bone we put a metal cap on the end of that we take about eight to 10 millimeters of phone off your shin bone and that’s your new knee.”

Nayak said the surgery is performed on an outpatient basis, though he emphasized it is still not an easy experience.

“This is an outpatient surgery, still unpleasant to have, avoid it like the plague if you can, but if you need to have it done, it is a, in my 30 years of practice, I can tell you that it’s never been as good as it is now,” he said.

The technique can also shorten recovery time once patients begin physical therapy, according to Nick Swint, a physical therapist at OrthoCincy. Swint said patients treated by Nayak often have strong range of motion immediately after surgery, which can allow therapy to move sooner into strengthening.

“One of the things that’s really different about Dr. Nayak that I haven’t seen necessarily other places is how good these patients’ range of motion is coming out of surgery compared to when they, specifically when they came in,” Swint said. “There’s not a lot precautions or restrictions with total knees, but because their range is so good, we’re kind of working on that initially, and then starting to work into some early strengthening work, trying to get those muscles stronger, and then really getting them to work in their new range.”