Why preservation matters.
Joint replacements last a long time — but they don't last forever, and they don't move like the joint you were born with. For younger and more active patients, every year you can delay a replacement is a year of native joint motion you don't have to engineer back later.
Preservation is a different skillset from replacement. It demands a careful read of the cartilage map, the alignment, and the meniscus — and a willingness to walk away from a perfectly billable replacement when the better operation is a smaller one.
Most second opinions land here. If you've been told it's bone-on-bone, told you're too young for a replacement but offered nothing else, or told there's nothing to be done — this is the conversation.
Who this is for.
- Patients under 65 told they need a knee or hip replacement
- Athletes with focal cartilage damage after an injury
- Patients with malalignment causing one-sided joint wear
- Anyone seeking a second opinion before joint replacement surgery
Philosophy.
Replacement should be a decision, not a default. The right operation depends on your alignment, your cartilage, your age, and what you need your joint to do next. Sometimes the right operation is a replacement; sometimes it's an osteotomy; sometimes it's a cartilage transplant. The job is to figure out which.