Arthroscopy is a procedure that is performed on the interior of a joint with a tool called an arthroscope. The tool is inserted, via a tiny incision, into the joint and can not only evaluate what is wrong with a joint, but can treat ailments like ACL tears, damaged cartilage, and floating cartilage. Because the procedure is minimally invasive, it is often used to treat patients for whom a long recovery time would be detrimental, like professional athletes. While arthroscopy can be performed on virtually every human joint, it is most commonly used for hips, feet, wrists, elbows, ankles, knees, and shoulders.

The first arthroscopic examination was thought to have taken place in 1919 in Tokyo. Later research uncovered that a Danish doctor performed a knee arthroscopy in 1912 at a conference of surgeons in Berlin. Whether or not he performed the procedure on a living patient, however, is unknown. While the smaller joints mentioned above are the most common candidates for arthroscopy, spinal arthroscopy is also possible. Because spinal surgery is so invasive, arthroscopy provides a less invasive alternative (with less resulting tissue damage) in cases of degenerative discs, spinal disc herniation, spinal tumors, and certain spinal deformities. Today, arthroscopy is a very common orthopaedic surgery, which is good because it is minimally invasive and requires less recovery time than standard surgery for the joints or the spine.
Most top-notch doctors who perform arthroscopic services will offer it for ailments like carpal tunnel syndrome, torn ligaments, damaged rotator cuffs, and knee, hip, shoulder, and ankle injuries.

One still-new use for arthroscopy is treatment for osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is a condition in which the patient suffers from a degeneration of the joint. Studies so far indicate that arthroscopy is not a solution to chronic pain, in comparison to physical therapy and medication, in cases of osteoarthritis. As far was what to expect after arthroscopy in terms of recovery, expect swelling, discomfort, and instability, so it is important to baby the knee, shoulder, hip, etc. until swelling goes down and the joint has been repaired completely.

The biggest advances to the procedure of arthroscopic surgery came in the early 1980′s, with the improvement of fiber optics – the design of the actual arthroscope has actually improved since then, making the surgery common, easy, and very, very effective.

Some conditions that benefit from the surgery are meniscus injuries of the joins, cartilage microfracturing in the knee, femoracetabular impingement, labral tears in the hip, hip infection, chrondral lesions, sub acromial impingement, rotator cuff tears, SLAP lesions, frozen shoulder, carpal tunnel and other wrist injuries, and the spinal injuries mentioned above. As medical knowledge and image technology improve, so can we expect arthroscopic surgery to change and improve as well? The better the imaging capabilities, the more accurately a doctor can diagnose the problem.
This will lead to less unnecessary surgeries, more effective surgeries, and shorter recovery time and (we hope) a reduced cost for the overall procedure.

OSC is the leading orthopedic and spinal surgery center on the East Coast and is the leading practice for Newport News Computer Assisted Hip Replacement procedures.