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I have had both done by 2 really good ortho guys in the same practice. I had "poster boy for arthritis" knees, and had them done 2 years apart. Now about 5 years ago, it changed my life and gave me back full mobility, meaning no handicap. My only caution to anyone contemplating this is to do the rehab as a willing and enthusiastic participant! Do the ice for the first week or so to keep the swelling down. They gave me an ice water pump contraption with a sleeve for the knee to circulate ice water around the knee. My wife kept the ice chamber full of ice so it was always ice cold. The doc told me that swelling is not a good thing and to be avoided, therefore use the ice and elevation of the knee. Use the walker, you don't want to crash on the way to the bathroom (I did, fainted taking out a towel rack and banging my head, knee ok, got dehydrated) First knee about 8 weeks of recuperation, second about 6 weeks. I was 70 at the time.
The docs cautioned against doing very strenuous activities, like snow skiing, mountain biking, tennis, MMA fighting or anything that can stress and damage the new knee.
They said the repair for a fracture of the implant or a separation of the implant from the femur or tibia (cement holding it place) was "positively medieval", meaning cutting off the new knee and starting over. My understanding is the bone eventually makes the implant part of the native structure (any Doc's please correct me if wrong on this).
Interesting point: in the first operation they used staples to close the incision, in the second they used some sort of surgical glue to close the incision, with a smaller scar.
Good luck!
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