ARTHROSCOPY

ARTHROSCOPY
Alexandros Tzaveas
Arthroscopy, or arthroscopic surgery, is perhaps the most frequently used technique in orthopaedics today. It is a minimally invasive surgical procedure in which the examination and treatment of a lesion inside a joint is carried out using an arthroscope, a type of endoscope that is introduced into the joint through a small incision. Connecting the endoscope to a monitor allows the surgeon to perform surgical manoeuvres while observing the operative field at very high magnification.
The term arthroscopy was coined abroad for a technique of observing the joint (since etymologically it comes from «arthrosis», that is joint, and «skopein», that is to observe), as it was originally a purely diagnostic method. Today, arthroscopy is principally a therapeutic surgical technique and only in a very few cases does it have a purely diagnostic character. As a result, many operations that until a few years ago were performed through large incisions can now be carried out through two or more small incisions of about one centimetre.
For many years arthroscopy was applied mainly to the knee joint, both because of the high frequency of problems in that region and because of the ease of access to it. Over the past decade, however, arthroscopy has been applied widely to the joints of the shoulder, the ankle, the radiocarpal joint (wrist) and the elbow. In recent years arthroscopy has also been applied to the hip joint.
Arthroscopic techniques offer many advantages, such as low morbidity, a short hospital stay or none at all, reduced postoperative pain, a better cosmetic result and also greater precision in refined surgical techniques. For these reasons the technique of arthroscopy is developing ever further and its indications are continually widening.