This is a form of minimally invasive surgery, where small, but incised incisions are made to allow instruments to be placed into a joint to both diagnose and treat injury and damage. This is something that can be done to the shoulder joint, elbow, hip, knee and ankle. Often this kind of surgery, when indicated, can restore function and help with pain with minimal incisions and, as such, quicker healing.
Arthroscopy (also called arthroscopic surgery) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure in which an examination and sometimes treatment of damage of the interior of a joint is performed using an arthroscope, a type of endoscope that is inserted into the joint through a small incision. Arthroscopic procedures can be performed either to evaluate or to treat many orthopedic conditions including torn floating cartilage, torn surface cartilage, ACL reconstruction, and trimming damaged cartilage.