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This question will be answered first by Ortho doctor ?

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Dr. Karuna Kumar

This question will be answered first by an Ortho doctor in Trivandrum. This will be answered by your anesthesiologist. There may also be other physicians involved. Let me explain.

Your mother's orthopaedic doctor must evaluate her medical condition and help her decide if a knee replacement is right for her. Before deciding whether to proceed with surgery, the surgeon must review all her medical history including past medical/surgical histories, family history, medications and allergies. All of her medical histories should be available to her surgeon.

When deciding whether to proceed with elective procedures such as knee replacements, a surgeon has a responsibility to consider the whole patient. If the surgeon feels that the patient is at acceptable risk for knee replacement surgery, that's just the beginning.


Your surgeon should send your mom for labs and imaging studies, such as an electrocardiogram or chest x-ray. She will likely also talk to her primary care doctor.

Your mother's blood pressure and diabetes can be controlled easily if she follows a healthy diet and exercises. If these conditions are not well controlled, like high insulin doses or multiple medications that do not provide a good response, she could be at greater risk. This could make it difficult for her to be cleared for knee replacement. It is important to remember that diabetes can make it more difficult for her to get cleared for the knee replacement.


Before medical clearance, your mother might need to see a subspecialist like a cardiologist. It would be her primary care doctor's responsibility to make this determination during the clearance process. We will have two jobs: the primary doctor and/or another specialist. The first is to assess her risk for pulmonary or cardiac adverse events during surgery. These risks can be reduced or eliminated in preparation for surgery.


Your mother should be following the medical clearance process closely with her surgeon and communicating these findings to you.

The anesthesiologist is last in the chain. This is because most often, the anesthesiologist doesn't meet with your mother until the day before surgery. Your mother should have been evaluated thoroughly by other doctors before she is allowed to go to the anesthesiology section.

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Dr. Karuna Kumar
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