Total Knee Replacement Observation

Today I observed a left total knee replacement procedure. The surgeon was Dr. O’Neil and anesthesiologist was Dr. Wells. Before the operation began, I followed one of the nurses to ask the patient questions to help us determine their medical history and if the patient ate anything within the last twelve hours. Once we took the patient to the O.R., Dr. Wells checked the patient's vital signs and ordered the patient to sit up and have bad posture. Dr. Wells cleaned an area of the back where he injected a sedative into the patient’s spinal cord to relieve them of severe pain once the surgery was done. The patient laid down on the bed and was strapped down. The left leg was wrapped in gauze and connected to a monitor. The scrubs and Dr. O’Neil
wore a suit similar to a hazmat suit along. Dr. O’Neil marked the area where he made the incisions and began making incisions on the left knee. He opened the wound and then raised the patient's left leg making it stand upright. He began resurfacing the cartilage between the femur and the tibia so it the knee implant would be able to fit perfectly. He worked on the femur first and sawed off the end of the bone. He reshaped it so he could put nails, or pins, into the femur and hammered them in. Dr. O’Neil grabbed a chisel and hammer and chiseled the tibia so it had a flat end. Throughout the surgery, I noticed how the pins were constantly being removed, moved and hammered in. Dr. O'Neil flattened the end of the femur, cut part of the join, made a post and attached the tibia on to the femur. He stated he had to make a perfect angle when attaching the tibia, otherwise the bottom half of the leg would be crooked. After a while Dr. O’Neil cleaned the area with cloth and placed the replacement on the end of the femur.