OUR JOINTS are important! They help us make a variety of bodily movements so we can glide through all the blessings of life.
However, complex joints like the knee can sometimes sustain ligamentous injuries. It could be related to any of the four ligaments in your knee. Here, we will discuss PCL injuries and surgical treatments for the same.
What is PCL?
PCL stands for Posterior Cruciate Ligament. It is one of the connective tissue bands that are found in the knee. These structures are like strips or ropes that stabilise the knee bones.
Because of ACL, PCL, MCL, and LCL (all these are like little ropes offering bone-to-bone connectivity), your knee remains in place with no excess motion like forwards, sideways, and backwards.
What is PCL surgery and why is it needed?
Posterior Cruciate Ligament is the connective tissue of the knee that we have already discussed.
PCL is a soft tissue. Thus, when this strip is traumatised more than its resistance or tolerance capacity, it can break completely or tear partially.
When such a tear or break occurs in PCL, you have to seek medical intervention to correct this situation. Such medical intervention is called PCL surgery.
There are two types of this surgery: repair and reconstruction.
Repair is the option where the tear in the PCL is not severe and of a partial sort. In this situation, the surgeon is either going to sew the tear surgically or use other methods to repair it without replacing the entire ligament with a graft.
A graft is a living tissue taken either from the body of the person undergoing surgery or any other donor.
The graft is used when the PCL is completely damaged or torn and needs a replacement. So, secondly, there is reconstruction surgery.
If the entire PCL is going to be reconstructed, the surgeon will perform arthroscopy to replace the same with the help of a graft.
If you don’t know anything about arthroscopy, refer to the following section where we have talked about it in detail.
If you need to consult a specialist, click on the best arthroscopic surgeon in Delhi.
The procedure of PCL surgery?
PCL injuries are often not intense and thus they can be treated arthroscopically.
An orthopedic surgeon will first make a small hole-like incision over the right spot on the affected knee. Second, the surgeon will use an arthroscope to have visuals of the torn ligament on a big screen set up in the surgery room.
An arthroscope is a camera tool like a long and thin stick. It is inserted inside the knee through the hole created. With the help of other surgical instruments, the injured PCL is treated.
If the injury is partial, sutures or any other surgical sewing techniques will be performed. However, in the case of reconstruction, the entire PCL is replaced with a graft.
When a knee problem is treated with the help of an arthroscope creating a hole through the skin, this surgery is called arthroscopy.
If you want to know, click on ACL reconstruction surgery cost in Delhi.
Anaesthesia involved in the procedure
Your surgeon has basically three options of administering anaesthesia while performing an arthroscopy to treat your injured PCL. These are as follows:
General Anaesthesia: In this option, the surgeon will put you to deep sleep and you will be unconscious throughout the procedure. Although arthroscopic surgery doesn’t always require administering this kind of anaesthesia, your surgeon might make a call to give you general anaesthesia.
GA is given either through an injection in the vein or inhalation when the anaesthetic is gaseous. Either way, the sedative drugs are taken to the brain where consciousness snaps for the required period of time, allowing the surgeon to perform the surgery without letting you feel the pain and all sorts of physical discomfort.
Regional Anaesthesia: RA is performed when the body needs to be put under anaesthesia partially. For example, if the surgeon only needs to operate surgically below the waist, then only this part will be made unconscious.
RA is of three types Spinal, Epidural, and Regional Nerve Block.
Spinal RA: Here, the anaesthetic is given via an injection into the lower section of your backbone.
Epidural RA: Here, the same spot is used as above but the drug is transferred into the body via a catheter (flexible tube).
Nerve Block: If your body is partially made unconscious by administering anaesthetic via any other part of your body except the spine, it is a nerve block.
Local Anesthesia: When a specific local part is to be made numb like only the knee, shoulder or feet, anaesthetic is injected only around that particular area.
However, it is always within the purview of your surgeon which method of anaesthesia they need before the PCL reconstruction or repair surgery.
