Imaging is one of the many tools that Dr. Botero and his team use to assess joint health, but can an imaging test alone determine if you’re in the market for a new artificial knee? In today’s blog, we explain whether or not an X-ray can determine if you need a knee replacement or not.
X-Rays For Knee Replacement
An X-ray is a wonderful tool that most physicians use to assess the health of bones throughout the body. It can tell us if a fracture exists, if bone density is diminishing, if bone spurs have developed and so much more. But can this tool determine if you need a knee replacement?
Yes and no. An x-ray is certainly a helpful tool in determining if a patient may be a good candidate for a knee replacement procedure, but it won’t tell the whole picture, so it shouldn’t be the only determining factor that is weighed when considering care options. Some things you can tell about a patient’s knee from an X-ray include:
- Cartilage Loss – Although an X-ray is designed to showcase bone health, we can also determine how much cartilage loss has taken place based on the space between bones. If these bones are very close together in the knee, it means that the patient is dealing with moderate to severe cartilage loss.
- Bone-On-Bone Contact – If cartilage loss is significant or arthritic degeneration has progressed to the point that bones are coming in contact with one another, we’ll be able to see that on your X-ray.
- Bone Spurs – Your orthopedic surgeon will also be able to see if any bony overgrowths have developed in or around the knee joint.
- Compartmental Health – An X-ray can give a surgeon a better idea of the overall health of different compartments of the knee. If only one area of the knee is dealing with arthritic degeneration, the patient may be a candidate for a partial knee replacement instead of a total arthroplasty.
- We can learn a lot about a person’s knee health from an X-ray, but it certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. Some things you can’t learn about a patient from an X-ray include:
- Symptoms/Severity – An X-ray isn’t going to be able to determine what symptoms patients are experiencing or how knee degeneration is impacting their walking ability.
- Response To Conservative Care – We can’t look at an X-ray image and know for certain whether or not a patient will respond well to conservative care like physical therapy, There are ways to determine if a patient may be more likely to respond positively to a specific treatment protocol, but an X-ray can’t say for certain that one type of treatment will work.
- Quality Of Life and Patient Goals – Finally, we can’t learn how knee discomfort is impacting your quality of life from an X-ray. We need to sit down with the patient to discuss their symptoms and their treatment goals in order to understand what we’re up against and how we can help them achieve the best recovery results. The best surgeons pair imaging evidence with information they obtain from the patient to make an informed care decision.
If you’re wondering how to best care for your ailing knee, set up an assessment with Dr. Botero and see if an imaging test would be worth your time. We’re confident that we can find the right treatment solution for your unique needs. For more information, or for help with a different joint concern, connect with Dr. Botero and his team today at (865) 410-1218.
