Knee pain is one of the most common problems affecting older people, leading to reduced physical and social activity, nervous irritability, insomnia and even depression. Often the only way to overcome this pain is to commit to knee replacement surgery. At least that’s how it’s been so far. More recently, the Republican Hospital of Panevėžys began to apply the revolutionary procedure of embolization of the knee joint called the revolutionary procedure – a minimally invasive and effective way to prevent joint pain.
Knee joint pain – not only physical discomfort
The radiologist of the Republican Panevėžys Hospital, Dr. Andrius Pranculis, can be called the pioneer of knee embolization in Lithuania. The specialist, who has accumulated extensive experience in interventional radiology, was the first medic to perform this procedure in our country. Today it is the only specialist in the country that patients can turn to for embolization of the knee joint.
According to Dr. Andrius Pranculis, the main causes of the appearance of pain in the knee joint are overweight, the nature of work, injuries and arthrosis of the joints.
“Knee joint pain can be caused by both one specific cause and a complex set of them. Very often, this pain occurs due to excess weight, when the knee joints are under severe strain. Arthrosis of the joints caused by natural aging also causes pain in this area of the body. Standing or hard physical work, when all the dynamics of the body is distorted, is another cause of pain in the knee joint. The consequences of long-term injuries, when the cartilage of the joint, the cruciate ligament or the meniscus are damaged, should not be forgotten either,” explains Dr. A. Pranculis.
With the appearance of pains in the knee joint, according to the radiologist, both the physical and psychological state of a person deteriorates.
“The knee joint can hurt both when moving and at rest, and the pain itself is both instantaneous and permanent. In the latter case, patients need to constantly use pain-reducing drugs, due to a sore knee, a person’s mobility is radically reduced, it becomes difficult for him to walk, to perform daily chores. Generally speaking, a person becomes a hostage to his own body, and as a result, his psychological state also deteriorates,” says the interlocutor.
The radiology department of the Republican Panevėžys Hospital, as dr. A. Pranculis tells us, is often approached by people who are no longer helped by anyone – neither medicines nor various procedures.
“The vast majority of my patients have tried all possible treatments, both conservative and alternative, so they only have to wait for knee replacement surgery. However, some of them cannot undergo this operation due to their general state of health, age, other diseases, and some are simply afraid of such an invasive method of treatment,” says Dr. A. Pranculis.
According to him, most often women apply for embolization of the knee joint, and the average age of patients is 66 years.
“The distribution of my patients is 70 per cent. women and 30 percent. men, but I do not think that men suffer from this problem less often, it’s just that they are not inclined to go to doctors and take care of their health. At that time, the age of the patients corresponds to global trends, i.e. y. as everywhere, in Lithuania this problem most often affects people over the age of 60,” says the radiologist.
Could no longer live without painkillers
Vitalija, a 66-year-old resident of Panevėžys district, who has suffered from knee joint pain for many years, today tells her story with a smile.
“I have worked as a kindergarten teacher all my life, and when I came back from work, I also looked after the farm, so this lifestyle of mine, I think, influenced the appearance of pain in the knee joint. And it hurt really hard, I could hardly climb the stairs, overcoming a greater distance was practically impossible for me. Without strong painkillers, I couldn’t live anymore,” the woman says.
At first, Vitalia says that she thought that these pains are associated with problems with the veins in the legs, but after conducting research, it turned out that the woman has advanced arthrosis of the knee joint, so the only remaining method of treatment is knee replacement surgery. “I contacted a surgeon who immediately said that not much else can help me, I need to change the knee joint. She assigned a date for the operation and all she had to do was wait,” she recalls.
However, before she reached her turn for surgery, the woman unexpectedly saw a report on television, which told about a new method of treating knee pain in Lithuania – embolization.
“I had nothing to lose, so I found additional information on the Internet and decided that it was worth a try. I contacted the Republican Hospital of Panevėžys, where on July 13. i underwent an embolization of the knee joint,” she says.
The procedure, according to her, passed very smoothly, was completely painless, and 2 weeks after embolization, the pain in the knee joint simply disappeared.
“I couldn’t believe it hurt anymore. I kept waiting, maybe it would still start to hurt, but just as the pain does not return, so it does not return. Today I feel really great, mobility has returned, I can also take longer walks outside. Since I was only prescribed knee replacement surgery in 2025, I very much hope that by then the pain will not return, and if I feel that the condition of my knee is not deteriorating, I may postpone the operation for another later time,” the woman assures.
The procedure exceeded expectations
Embolization of the knee joint was also performed on 79-year-old Panevėžysian Vida. The man tells that active sports accompanied him all his life – in his youth he played football professionally, and later worked as a physical education teacher, so joint problems in old age were almost coded for him.
“When I was 22, my meniscus ruptured while playing sports, so I had to have surgery. After that, I worked as a physical education teacher for 47 years, then retired, but continued to try to be physically active. However, about half a year ago, I began to have severe and constant pain in my knee, which I had surgery in my youth,” Vidas recalls.
After reading in the newspaper about the embolization of the knee joint in his city, Vidas consulted with tarumatologists, but they were quite careful to comment on the new method of treatment in Lithuania, because he had never encountered it.
“The doctor offered me a different treatment. However, I am an inquisitive person – I decided to register with Dr. Francis and see how it really is,” the man says.
According to Vido, all his doubts evaporated as soon as he met a radiologist, and after embolization, after a while, the constant pain also disappeared.
“Both the doctor and his entire team, the nurses were very kind and helpful, and the procedure performed exceeded all my expectations – it was not painful, it was done quickly and professionally,” he assures the interlocutor.
Vidas says he can recommend this method of treatment to other people suffering from knee pain as well, as his experience has shown that well-being before and after embolization of the knee joint is like day and night.
“Now I can walk that both a 10km pedestrian and a pain like there wasn’t. Of course, sometimes it happens that he’s mad, but there’s nothing to want – I definitely move more than recommended by my age,” the man laughs.
An innovative method of overcoming pain
Dr. A. Pranculis can be called the pioneer of knee embolism in Lithuania. The specialist, who has accumulated extensive experience in interventional radiology, was the first medic to perform this procedure in our country.
“In the world, this is a fairly new procedure, which was introduced in Lithuania only in June of this year. During embolization, a small catheter barely sprindium long is introduced through the groin, through which embolizing substances that block blood vessels are injected. This method of treatment does not touch the joint, but only the blood vessels that feed it. In this way, the formation of new structures that cause pain is slowed down,” explains the radiologist, adding that due to the minimally invasive method, the risk of infection entering the joint is eliminated.
Although this procedure is usually performed through the leg, Dr. A. Francis does not exclude the possibility of starting to apply embolism of the knee joint in the future by leading the catheter through the arteries of the arm.
“This would ensure less chance of complications, faster recovery and the possibility of returning home on the same day. However, experience in embolization is the main key to making the procedure successful and avoiding complications. During the year, my team and I perform many thousands of different interventions, so we can perform embolization of the knee joint in a really safer way and eliminate possible risks,” says the interlocutor.
The doctor also pays a great tribute to the entire team of the Republican Panevėžys Hospital, without whose contribution, according to him, it would not have been possible to start applying this innovative treatment.
“I work in an organization that has a high level of patient care, coordinated work and competencies. I myself am only at the end point – the waste procedure, and everything else, i.e. y. patient diagnoses, consultations, care – our team takes care of it,” says the radiologist.
It is the experienced specialists of the radiology department of the Republican Panevėžys Hospital and dr. A. Pranculis himself who are the reason why people from all over Lithuania come to this medical institution both for embolization of the knee joint and for other procedures.
“More recently, we had a patient from Vilkaviškis, not too long ago – a patient from Klaipeda, another patient from Vilnius. This shows that people trust us and therefore do not bother to come even from the farthest corners of Lithuania,” says the radiologist.
Constantly improving results
Dr. A. Francis performs about 20 embolizations of the knee joint per month. “With each such procedure, the results are getting better and better, and at the moment we already have a fairly high percentage of patient satisfaction,” says the radiologist.
The doctor tells that in order to further perfect this method of treatment, he is constantly interested in the solutions and means that appear on the market.
Dr. A. Pranculis not only deepens his knowledge in the process of embolization of the knee joint, but also cooperates with specialists of other hospitals, consults them and gives valuable advice. Therefore, according to him, it is only a matter of time before this method will reach hospitals in other Lithuanian cities.
“The results are good, the number of people interested in such treatment is also growing, so I have no doubt that in the future this procedure will be applied on a much larger scale. However, as I said, this requires experienced specialists who are knowledgeable in their work,” says the doctor.
Source: delfi.lt
