5) Surgical repair
In severe cases of osteoarthritis, and when the disease is advanced and has reached a point of no return where the articulation is severely damaged, or the pain is difficult to control, surgical repair may stand as one of the only treatment options.
The most common surgical procedure for knee osteoarthritis is total and partial knee replacement surgery, in which an artificial joint prosthesis replaces all or part of the knee joint. It is essential to select patients and the materials of the prosthesis very carefully because these surgeries are associated with substantial post-operative morbidity and often need to be changed after a few years.