Obesity is causing a greater strain on the knee joints thus increasing the need for Knee Replacement.

Total knee replacement (TKR) is a common treatment for osteoarthritis, a disease affecting more than 20 million Americans. However, the surgery poses risks and both patients and physicians must carefully assess its potential benefits and harm.

Significant increases in surgical capacity or diverting patients to other jurisdictions are the best ways to deal with excessive wait times for hip and knee replacement surgery – a leading symbol of underfunding in Canada's healthcare system.

There is no justification for denying obese patients knee replacement surgery: They benefit almost as much as anyone else from the procedure, concludes a small study published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Health-care system constraints combined with a lack of a uniform referral process are leaving Ontario physicians brokering which patients are in greatest need of hip and knee replacement, a study led by a St. Michael's Hospital researcher funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has revealed.

New research out of the University of Delaware (UD) indicates that patients who have undergone total knee arthroplasty (TKA) need to relearn the proper techniques of moving from a sitting to standing position. The study was originally published in Physical Therapy (May 1, 2008), the scientific journal of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).