hi,
thank you for providing the brief history of your mother.
As your mother is advised with TKR, I think in many of the cases TKR can be delayed or avoided even depending upon the clinical findings.
As your mother is 64 years old, there will be some degenerative changes happening within the joint which may lead to damage of cartilages within the knee joint. If the x-ray has revealed no joint space most surgeons will recommend TKR as to reduce the pain levels. Also, due to
knee pain, there will be changed in normal gait mechanism leading to
stress and strain on the spinal column leading to back pains.
In my Clinical practice, most patients never underwent surgery even after the x-ray was indicating the TKR. As we follow a strict protocol to rehabilitate the knee and back to make sure the surgery is avoided to 99%.
Also, in my practice many patients been seen under me who had a prescription of advice for TKR but never underwent. The first foremost thing we did is a thorough clinical examination and then used the diagnostics for understanding the knee mechanism and predicted the outcome score. infact we got more than we expected.
Many patients coming to me with similar complaints are actually having a functionally active life style like jogging. We never underwent surgery.
If you can provide me some more details I would be happy to help your mother and regain the full knee mobility.
Regards
Jay Indravadan Patel