Knee Replacement in Cardiac Patients / Walk your way to healthy heart
As our population ages more and more patients are undergoing Cardiac interventions like angioplasty (Cardiac stenting) or CABG(Heart Surgery). The favourable outcome of these procedures is largely determined by ability of such patients to exercise after surgery. However large numbers of patients have limited ability to walk because of knee arthritis. Tackling knee arthritis and easing the pain is of foremost importance in such patients.

Many people are misinformed about such cardiac patients undergoing knee replacement and fear about possible risks and complications. If some precautions are adhered the risks are not more than any other case.
The blood thinning drugs (Aspirin, Clopidegrol) are stopped 5-7 days prior to surgery. These drugs are restarted postoperatively at appropriate time. However other drugs for blood pressure are to be continued.
Simultaneous both knee replacement is not advisable in cardiac patients and is associated with more risks. A staged procedure after 4-6 weeks interval is quite safe. This is however more costlier.
We evaluated cardiovascular fitness after hip and knee replacement, found that the post-operative resumption of physical activity was associated with increased fitness, and that patients following joint replacement were fitter than the patients with arthritic joints who were treated non-operatively.
The major purpose of total knee arthroplasty is improvement in the patients quality of life. Successful total knee replacement enables increased levels of exercise and this can be beneficial to patients with anxiety, depression, High cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis .
Liaison between the surgeon, anaesthetist and cardiologist is recommended.
Dr. Harinder Batth