Don't let hip pain and knee pain hold you back from doing the activities you love. At University of Missouri Health Care, our orthopaedic experts can help relieve your pain and improve your mobility.
Our compassionate orthopaedic surgeons provide complete care for your hip pain and knee pain. At MU Health Care’s Missouri Orthopaedic Institute (MOI), we offer all the orthopaedic services you need under one roof — from diagnosis to surgery to physical therapy. Our facility is specially designed to make your care easy and comfortable.
We offer a variety of nonsurgical treatment options designed to reduce your pain. These treatments may include:
- Building strength through physical therapy
- Medicine injections
- Weight loss support
If these treatments cannot relieve your pain, our adult reconstruction specialists provide a full spectrum of surgical treatment options for advanced hip or knee conditions.
Joint Preservation
When the cartilage in your hip or knee joint is still healthy, our surgeons can provide advanced treatments to repair or remove damaged tissue and corrective surgeries to preserve the joint cartilage and delay the progression of arthritis.
Whenever possible, we use minimally invasive techniques to restore your hip or knee joint, which offer smaller incisions and shorter recovery time following surgery. No matter which type of hip or knee replacement you receive, you’ll participate in physical therapy following surgery to help rebuild strength and improve your mobility.
Knee arthroscopy
If your knee has sustained damage to its supporting tissue (the meniscus), you may experience pain or locking/catching symptoms. Minimally invasive arthroscopic knee surgery may be helpful to remove or repair the damaged tissue. During the procedure, your orthopaedic surgeon will use a few small incisions and specialized tools to remove or repair your cartilage.
Knee osteotomy
If your knee is not aligned, our experienced surgeons can reposition the joint. We use these procedures when a single compartment of the knee is involved and when good cartilage remains in the knee joint.
During an osteotomy, your orthopaedic surgeon will remove part of the bone around your knee. He or she will then realign the knee joint and hold it in position using a plate and screws. This realignment helps your knee work as it should and relieves stress on your cartilage.
Hip arthroscopy
Hip arthroscopy can help you if you have sustained damage to the tissues around the hip joint or have minor deformities to the hip bone structure. During minimally invasive arthroscopy surgery, your surgeon repairs or reshapes the joint to restore normal function and delay the development of arthritis in the joint. Your surgeon will use specialized tools to remove bone deformities or damaged cartilage and repair your cartilage.
Hip osteotomy
If you have a painful hip due to a structural deformity (hip dysplasia), our orthopaedic surgeons can realign the hip joint and decrease the damage to your cartilage. These procedures can extend the life of your hip joint and restore normal joint function.
During hip osteotomy, your physician removes part of the bone on either your pelvis or femur (the thigh bone). The surgeon then realigns the joint, holding it in place with screws so it can heal properly.
Joint Replacement Surgery
When your cartilage is damaged by injury or years of wear and tear, you may need joint replacement surgery to relieve your pain and get you back to the activities you love. During this surgery, your damaged joint is replaced with an artificial joint.
Partial knee replacement
If cartilage is damaged on just one side of your knee, you are a candidate for partial knee replacement. During partial knee replacement, your physician will remove the damaged cartilage from your knee. The surgeon will then place metal implants over the surface of the bones in the knee joint and a plastic spacer between the two metal pieces. These implants will act as your new joint.
Total knee replacement
If the cartilage throughout your knee is damaged, you’ll need a total knee replacement. During this surgery, metal and plastic implants replace the entire knee joint.
Anterior hip replacement
If arthritis has damaged your hip joint, you will need surgery to replace the joint with metal and plastic implants. During an anterior hip replacement, the latest approach to hip replacement, the surgeon makes an incision in the front of your hip. Then, your surgeon uses specialized tools to remove the femoral head (the ball-shaped area at the top of the thigh bone) and replace it with a metal ball. Your surgeon also removes the damaged cartilage in the hip socket and replaces it with a metal socket. A plastic cushion goes between the metal femoral head and metal hip socket, creating a new joint.
Posterior hip replacement
A posterior hip replacement is the traditional approach to hip replacement. During this procedure, the surgeon makes an incision behind the hip. To reach the hip bone, the surgeon must cut some muscles and tissues that are repaired at the end of your surgery.
Learn more about hip surgery and knee surgery.