Knee Timeline - OperationOperation You will be admitted to hospital either on the day before surgery or on the day of surgery depending on the time of your operation. There is a trend towards the admission occurring on the day of surgery. Your leg will be prepared for surgery, ensuring that it is marked for the correct side. You will be admitted to hospital either on the day before surgery or on the day of surgery depending on the time of your operation. There is a trend towards the admission occurring on the day of surgery. Your leg will be prepared for surgery, ensuring that it is marked for the correct side.You will be seen by the anaesthetist. In some cases this will have happened at an anaesthetic assessment clinic prior to your admission. The anaesthetist will discuss the different types of anaesthesia available and will choose which anaesthetic would be most appropriate. You will be collected for surgery by a porter and taken into the anaesthetic room of the theatre. Numerous checks will be done to ensure that the correct operation is to be carried out on the correct limb. In the anaesthetic room the anaesthetist will anaesthetise you and once you are asleep, or the leg is made numb, you will be taken into the operating room for the surgery. Click here to see more explanation of the surgery When you wake up from the surgery you will probably be in a recovery room attached to the theatre. According to the Consultant?s preference, you may have a catheter inserted into your bladder to help drain the urine, you may have an intravenous line in your arm, and you will probably be on oxygen. All of these things are ?normal? for a major operation such as a knee replacement. Following the surgery you will also be started on an anti-coagulant. This is a way of preventing you developing deep vein thrombosis. Some consultants use mechanical devices to do this in the form of calf compressors. These are wraps around the legs which blow up with air intermittently to encourage the circulation of blood in the leg. In addition it is possible to have chemical prophylaxis against deep vein thrombosis in the form of injections under the skin of a Heparin like substance which prevents blood clotting.
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