Arthroscopy

If you have arthritis or an injury to a shoulder, hip, knee or ankle joint, your doctor may recommend arthroscopy. Your surgeon uses this minimally invasive procedure to get a closer look inside a joint.

At Atrium Health Floyd and Harbin Clinic, our orthopedic and sports medicine specialists use arthroscopy to diagnose and treat joint injuries and conditions.

What is arthroscopy?

Arthroscopy is a minimally invasive surgical technique used specifically in joints. Your doctor makes a tiny incision in your skin and inserts an arthroscope, a thin tube that has a small camera on the end.

The camera takes images of the inside of your joint and projects them onto a screen in the operating room.

Doctors can accurately diagnose an injury or condition using arthroscopy to see all the bones, muscles, cartilage, tendons and ligaments in a joint. They can also use arthroscopy to perform minimally invasive surgery on the joint if needed.

For arthroscopic surgery, the doctor makes several additional tiny incisions around the joint. They use these holes to insert necessary surgical tools. Using video guidance from the arthroscope, they can perform precision surgeries without making large incisions.

Types of arthroscopy

Arthroscopy helps in diagnosing and treating injuries and joint conditions.

• Diagnostic arthroscopy: Providers often use arthroscopy in addition to traditional imaging techniques, such as X-ray, MRI or ultrasound. The clear view inside the joint can help your doctor make a more precise diagnosis and plan the most effective treatment.
• Arthroscopic surgery: Before arthroscopy use as a surgical technique, all joint surgeries required large incisions. Arthroscopy often eliminates the need for open surgery. Instead, your doctor inserts surgical tools into several tiny incisions to access and repair the joint.

Conditions benefiting from arthroscopy

Arthroscopy, whether for diagnosis or surgery, is used only on the joints. Typically, doctors use it to diagnose or treat conditions affecting the knee, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle and wrist.

Some of the more common joint surgeries that can be performed arthroscopically include:

• Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair (knee)
• Carpal tunnel release (wrist)
• Hip replacement
• Knee replacement
• Removing bone or cartilage fragments from a joint
• Repairing torn ligaments in a joint
• Rotator cuff repair (shoulder)
• Torn meniscus repair (knee)

With some complex injuries or conditions, your surgeon may do a combination surgery using both arthroscopic and open techniques.

Arthroscopy side effects

Because it is minimally invasive, arthroscopic surgery has fewer risks and complications than traditional, open surgery. Typically, patients have less pain and heal faster after arthroscopy.

Although they are less common with arthroscopy, side effects of any surgical procedure may include:

• Bleeding
• Blood clots
• Damage to a blood vessel or nerve
• Infection
• Reaction to anesthesia
• Swelling
• Weakness, stiffness or failure of the repair to the joint