Revolutionary surgery gets woman up and walking

BLUEFIELD - Elsie Allison never envisioned herself slowing down as she got older.

However, when the active stay-at-home mom was diagnosed with severe arthritis in her knee, she was told that she needed complete knee replacement surgery to escape the constant pain.

"I considered the old surgery but was forced to wait when I kept on getting other infection," Allison said. "But now I am glad that I waited because this surgery has been great. I cannot tell you how great it feels to be allowed to return home so soon after the surgery."

Allison is the first person on whom Bluefield Regional Medical Center orthopedic surgeon Dr. Walid Azzo has performed the surgery. In fact, she is the first person in the region to undergo the new procedure.

"I think the operation was a complete success," Azzo said. "A day after the surgery, she was able to walk and will return home on her own feet."

Traditional knee replacement surgery would have meant a large cut that would have resulted in scars, heavy blood loss and a long rehabilitation. However, Azzo's recent study of minimally invasive hip and knee replacement surgeries that have rethought traditional methods made Allison's worries a thing of the past.

"The new instruments and procedures allow us to attach prosthesis with muscle-sparing incisions," Azzo said. "All earlier methods of surgery required a 10-to-12 inch cut as well as cutting the quadriceps muscles for the knee replacement, but the new surgery is quad-sparing and results in faster and less painful recovery."

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