A partial knee replacement is a surgical procedure replacing only one part of a damaged knee: either the inside (medial) part, the outside (lateral) part, or the kneecap part of the knee.

During knee replacement surgery, damaged tissue and bone in the knee joint are removed. The areas are replaced with a prosthetic, and the remainder of the knee is preserved.

Patients usually spend very little, sometimes no time in the hospital, and are back to normal activities fairly quickly because partial knee replacements require smaller incisions. A partial knee replacement is an alternative to total knee replacement for some people with osteoarthritis of the knee.

Signs and Symptoms

• Arthritis confined to a single compartment of the knee
• Intact ligaments
• Generally restricted to patients who are not morbidly obese
• Not appropriate for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, marked knee stiffness, or severe deformity