Knee Replacement

At Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, orthopaedic surgeons perform both total and partial knee replacements. While total knee replacements are more common, some patients actually qualify for a partial knee replacement. After completing a CT arthrogram, your surgeon will help you determine if you are a candidate for total knee replacement or partial knee replacement. In either case, you will undergo an innovative, integrated knee pathway focusing on better pain control that allows the vast majority of patients to go home within a day or two. Some partial knee replacement patients may even go home on the same day as their surgery. And in most cases, patients return to normal non-impact sports activities such as walking and biking within just a few months.

Watch BWFH orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Vivek Shah discuss same-day joint replacement with Boston's WCVB Channel 5.

Experts at Brigham and Women’s Orthopaedic Center at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital have developed educational materials and screening procedures to help ensure a positive outcome. Before your surgery, you will have access to a joint class where you will learn about your procedure, recovery and how you can best prepare. You will also have access to Force Therapeutics, an online program where you will find the exercises that are part of our pre-surgery rehabilitation (“prehab”) program. Finally, you will be screened for bone and muscle wellness, as well as diabetes and pre-diabetes.

Following surgery, most patients will stay just overnight in hospital. Physical therapy will work with you to get you up and moving on the same day as your surgery. They will work with you so you can safely go up and down stairs before you're discharged from the hospital. Some patients will go home using a cane.

Then, you will begin our personalized, post-procedure, rapid recovery program. You will continue to have access to Force where you will find your rehabilitation protocols, as well as self-assessments. You can even use the program to ask your surgeon non-emergency questions.

Due to COVID we will be scheduling follow up appointments virtually in an effort to minimize your risk and exposure.

The care of each and every one of our patients is our top priority and we’re proud to say we have some of the most satisfied patients in Massachusetts. On post-surgery patient surveys, eighty-two percent of our one year post-surgery patients reported that they were “pleased” or “delighted” with the outcome of their surgery. For two year post-surgery patients, that number jumped to ninety-one percent.