Con­sul­ta­tion be­fore an or­tho­pe­dic surgery

A sur­gi­cal con­sul­ta­tion is al­ways useful if an or­tho­pe­dic ope­ra­tion has been re­com­men­ded – for ex­am­ple, for hip or knee os­teo­ar­thri­tis, shoulder pro­blems, me­nis­cus or cru­ciate li­ga­ment rup­ture, hal­lux val­gus, or her­nia­ted discs. A se­cond opi­nion also pro­vi­des gui­dance if you are un­sure about the right time or the choice of sur­gi­cal method.

The con­sul­ta­tion in­vol­ves ana­ly­zing the pre­vious dia­gno­sis, weig­hing up con­ser­va­tive and sur­gi­cal tre­at­ment me­thods, dis­cus­sing risks and the he­al­ing pro­cess, and ex­plai­ning the in­di­vi­du­ally ap­pro­priate pro­ce­dure – e.g., a mi­ni­mally in­va­sive hip or knee re­pla­ce­ment, ar­thro­sco­pic pro­ce­du­res, or foot corrections.

An ope­ra­tion is not al­ways ab­so­lut­ely ne­ces­sary. De­pen­ding on the fin­dings, con­ser­va­tive me­a­su­res such as in­fil­tra­tion the­ra­pies, phy­sio­the­rapy, shock wave the­rapy, ACP, or hyalu­ro­nic in­jec­tions can be a real al­ter­na­tive. A se­cond opi­nion also as­ses­ses whe­ther such op­ti­ons can still be usefully exhausted.

The fo­cus is par­ti­cu­larly of­ten on:

• Hip ope­ra­ti­ons (e.g., AMIS prosthesis)
• Knee ope­ra­ti­ons (e.g., na­vi­ga­ted knee re­pla­ce­ment, cru­ciate li­ga­ment sur­gery, meniscus)
• Re­vi­sion ope­ra­ti­ons for pro­sthe­sis problems
• Shoulder ope­ra­ti­ons (e.g., cal­ci­fic ten­di­ni­tis, ro­ta­tor cuff)
• Pro­ce­du­res on the hand and foot (e.g., car­pal tun­nel syn­drome, hal­lux valgus)

The con­sul­ta­tion is ba­sed on a de­tailed dis­cus­sion, re­view of exis­ting fin­dings, and, if ne­ces­sary, sup­ple­men­tary cli­ni­cal ex­ami­na­tion. An in­di­vi­dual re­com­men­da­tion is then made – with all the ad­van­ta­ges and di­s­ad­van­ta­ges of the plan­ned or al­ter­na­tive therapy.

Many he­alth insu­rance com­pa­nies co­ver the costs of an or­tho­pe­dic se­cond opi­nion. If there are any per­so­nal costs, you will be in­for­med trans­par­ently in ad­vance. The con­sul­ta­tion en­ables a well-foun­ded de­cis­ion – espe­ci­ally in the case of se­rious or plan­ned procedures.