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Short Stay Surgery & Orthopaedic

By Dr. Raju Easwaran in Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement , Arthroscopy & Sports Injury

Nov 08 , 2020 | 1 min read

As surgeons, we want our patients to recover fast and get back to doing what they were doing before they got injured. "Movement is life, life is movement" is the main mantra for most orthopaedic surgeries and surgeons alike.

Modern orthopaedic surgery is not what it once used to be. Incisions are smaller (4 mm v/s 6-10 inches), pain is lesser, mobility is faster (one is out of bed the very next day after most elective orthopaedic procedures) and there is little to no blood loss.

Almost all orthopaedic surgical procedures are now done through minimally invasive way, using a small 4 mm telescope. This procedure is called Arthroscopy (Greek, Arthros meaning ‘joint’ & Scopein meaning ‘to look’). Arthroscopy gives us surgeons a very enlarged bird's eye view of the disease, that enables us to give precision and accuracy down to millimetres. It is possible to inspect and intervene in all the joints of the human body using this technique & that translates into a world of advantages for the patients. A far better view of the pathology is afforded by minimal disruption of underlying soft tissues, thereby resulting in a much faster recovery.

The dread of prolonged hospitalisation causes most people to neglect their health for years on end. Not any longer, with short stay surgery, you can get discharged within 48 hours of your admission and recover at home. The orthopaedic surgeries that come within the ambit of this are:

KNEE ARTHROSCOPY for ligament tears, locked knee, recurrent dislocations etc.
SHOULDER ARTHROSCOPY for recurrent dislocations, rotator cuff tears, frozen shoulder, removal of bony spurs etc.
ELBOW ARTHROSCOPY for tennis elbow, loose bodies etc.
WRIST ARTHROSCOPY for wrist ligament injuries, carpal tunnel release
HIP ARTHROSCOPY for groin pain and other related problems
ANKLE ARTHROSCOPY for recurrent ankle sprains

It is best if one discusses with one's doctor about the detailed prognosis of each procedure face-to-face and the practicality of it being done as a short stay surgery. It is therefore appropriate to conclude that in this day and age of T20 cricket, fast food, snapchat, twitter etc., it is only apt that hospitals are moving towards "minimal hospitalisation and maximum care" through this short stay surgery.