Media Release

(20 May 2020 - Hong Kong) Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong’s (Gleneagles) Joint Replacement Centre has been committed to providing high-quality and safe treatments for patients with joint-related problems. Adopting a fast track approach in joint replacement, the multidisciplinary team of the Centre, working in conjunction with the recently-introduced pre-anaesthetic clinic, has further enhanced recovery speed for patients. With the further enhanced approach, patients can walk as soon as one hour after surgery.

Breakthrough in joint replacement enabling walking in one hour after surgery

Gleneagles established the Joint Replacement Centre in October 2018 to provide comprehensive treatment and care for patients, amid increasing demand for joint replacement. Mr Dirk Schraven, Chief Executive Officer of Gleneagles, said, “Our multidisciplinary team of the Centre has continued to advance and has performed more than 450 joint replacement surgeries, with exceptionally low complication rates, for example only 0.3% for total knee replacement. Further development of the protocols now allows patients to start walking as soon as one hour after surgery, and patients can literally walk out of the operating theatre.”

Mr Schraven continued, “We have also introduced our Pre-anaesthesia Clinic (PAC), which provides patients with comprehensive pre-operative anaesthetic assessment to enhance patient safety and ensure that patients are in their best possible state for surgery. Through the PAC, we aim to reduce patient’s anxiety, the rate of surgical complications, unnecessary pre-operative laboratory tests as well as day-of-surgery delay or cancellation.”

Gleneagles has increased the number of joint-related surgical packages to 30 currently from 20 when the Centre was first launched. Mr Schraven added, “In a bid to help patients whose surgeries have been postponed or cancelled due to the reduction of non-urgent services at public hospitals amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a 20% price reduction on joint replacement packages, among over 150 all-inclusive packages, is offered to patients from public hospitals exclusively.”

Recovery further enhanced through Fast Track Recovery and pre-anaesthesia clinic

Dr Yan Chun-hoi, Director of the Joint Replacement Centre at Gleneagles, said, “Owing to the advancement of joint replacement technology, a unilateral joint replacement surgery usually takes only around one hour, with reduced bleeding due to smaller surgical incision. Adopting the Fast Track Recovery approach can speed up recovery time, shorten hospital stays, reduce the rate of complications and mortality, and increase patients' satisfaction towards the outcomes.”

When pain is not effectively controlled and starts to impair patients' mobility and quality of life, a joint replacement procedure should be considered in order to cure the problem, as Dr Yan Chun-hoi pointed out, “Patients whose knee joints have severely degenerated, or if their entire knee joints are painful, will be recommended to undergo a total knee replacement in which the knee will be completely replaced with an artificial joint. If patients only have degeneration or pain in medial knee, they may consider a partial knee replacement, which replaces the medial knee with an artificial joint."

Gleneagles is currently the only private hospital in Hong Kong that has in place a regular pre-anaesthesia clinic, specialising in providing pre-operative assessment to patients undergoing surgeries. Dr Cheung Chi-wai, Specialist in Anaesthesiology at Gleneagles, shared that “Through detailed pre-operative assessments, anaesthesiologists can formulate a safe and appropriate anaesthesia plan for patients so as to reduce any possible side effects, especially for the elderly. Pre-operative assessments can also help anaesthesiologists determine precisely the doses and types of anaesthetics to be used during surgery, which speeds up patients’ recovery after anaesthesia and improves quality of rehabilitation. Another aim of the assessment is to develop personalised post-operative pain management plan. The multimodal analgesia approach adopted can help reduce post-operative pain and is crucial for the subsequent rehabilitation.”

Dr Cheung Man-hong, Specialist in Orthopaedics & Traumatology at Gleneagles, added, “The Joint Replacement Centre has been implementing the Fast Track Recovery approach and such standard protocol has been running more and more smoothly. For the 450 surgeries performed, over 50% were unilateral total knee replacement procedures. The advancement of the joint replacement surgery, together with the pre-operative anaesthesia assessment, facilitates faster recovery. Previously patients could walk on the same day or the next day after the surgery, while patients now can do so in one hour and can even walk from the operating theatre to the ward, showcasing excellent clinical outcomes and satisfactory recovery progress. Our data showed that the Joint Replacement Centre has performed surgeries with good clinical outcomes, and has been on a par with or even beyond local or international standards in terms of areas such as length of hospital stay and rate of complications.”

Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong 

Located at Wong Chuk Hang on Hong Kong Island South, Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong (Gleneagles) is a multi-specialty private hospital, providing 500 beds, cutting-edge medical technologies and a comprehensive range of clinical services spanning more than 35 specialties and subspecialties. As Hong Kong’s top-notch private teaching hospital, Gleneagles also contributes to the training and development of healthcare professionals and advancement of clinical research.  

Gleneagles is a joint venture between Parkway Pantai Limited and NWS Holdings Limited, with The University of Hong Kong as its exclusive clinical partner. Parkway Pantai is one of Asia’s largest integrated private healthcare groups and the largest operating subsidiary of IHH Healthcare, one of the largest healthcare groups in the world by market capitalisation, operating more than 15,000 licensed beds across 80 hospitals in 10 countries worldwide.