Partial Knee Replacement
When arthritis is confined to one compartment of the knee, there is no reason to replace the rest of it. A partial replacement resurfaces only the worn side, keeps your own ligaments, and recovers noticeably faster than a total.
- Typical length
- 45–75 minutes
- Going home
- Same day
How it's approached
- 01
Keeps what still works
Your cruciate ligaments stay. So does the healthy cartilage. Patients consistently describe a partial knee as feeling more like their own joint than a total does.
- 02
A shorter runway
Less bone removed and less soft-tissue disruption means less swelling, faster motion, and an earlier return to driving and work.
- 03
Candidacy is honest, not aspirational
Roughly one in four arthritic knees is a genuine partial candidate. If yours isn't, you'll be told — a partial done in the wrong knee is a revision waiting to happen.
Recovery
What the weeks after
actually look like.
Day 0
Surgery, then first steps
Days 1–7
Home and moving
Weeks 2–3
Off the walker, back behind the wheel
Weeks 4–6
Back to work and out of the house
Also treated
Total Hip Replacement
Arthritis in the hip shows up as groin pain, a limp, and the slow disappearance of things you used to do without thinking.
Read moreTotal Knee Replacement
A knee replacement resurfaces the worn ends of the joint and rebalances the soft tissue around it.
Read moreRobotic & Computer-Assisted Surgery
Robotic and navigation platforms turn a surgical plan into sub-millimeter execution.
Read more
Next step
The consultation is where
you find out if you even need surgery.
Bring your imaging, your questions, and the list of things you've stopped doing. You'll leave with a plan — surgical or not — and a realistic timeline for getting back to them.