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Typically a healthy patient can go home the same day after having arthroscopic knee surgery. Be sure to talk over the details with your hospital or surgical center. When you are preparing for this surgery, you should adhere to normal precautions. For example, you should not eat or drink after midnight on the night preceding your surgery. Be sure to arrive at the hospital an hour or two before your surgery is scheduled so you will have plenty of time for preparation.

Upon arrival at the hospital, you will meet with an anesthesiologist who will evaluate you to determine what kind of anesthesia will be best for your procedure. With knee arthroscopy, there are three options. The anesthesiologist may decide that local anesthesia, that puts you to sleep, will be best for you. Alternately, he or she may decide that you will do fine with regional anesthesia, that numbs you from the waist down, or local anesthesia, that just numbs your knee.

If one of the latter two options is chosen, you will remain conscious during your surgery. In this case, you can choose to watch your surgery on a monitor if you like.

Initially, your orthopedic surgeon will make a few small incisions in your knee. After this, your knee joint will be irrigated with a sterile solution that will wash any cloudy fluid away. This will enable the surgeon to have a clear view of the interior of your knee.

Following this, your surgeon will look into your knee with an arthroscope to diagnose your situation. An image of the interior of your knee will be projected onto a monitor. The surgeon will use this image to guide the arthroscope through the interior of your knee. Your surgeon will have an array of small surgical instruments on hand that can be inserted through the incisions in your knee. Included in this assortment will be very small motorized shavers, lasers, clamps, scissors and more.

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This part of the procedure will last forty-five minutes to an hour-and-a-half.

Here are some treatments you can commonly expect with knee arthroscopy:

Inflamed synovial tissue removal.

Torn cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Loose fragments of cartilage or bone may be removed.

Sections of articular cartilage that have torn will be trimmed.

Torn meniscal cartilage may be repaired or removed.

After your surgery, your surgeon will use one of two methods to close your incisions. He or she may stitch the incisions or simply tape them up with paper tape. Following this, your incisions will be covered with a bandage.

You will probably be released from the recovery room within an hour or two. Be sure to have a friend or family member waiting to drive you home.