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When Kathy isn't stepping down out of her UPS truck for work, she's stepping up onto one of her seven champion quarter horses for sport. "I like being on the go," she says. "But one day everything was taken away from me. I stepped out of the truck wrong and hyper-extended my knee."

Dr. Frank Noyes of the Deaconess Joint Replacement Center and Cincinnati Sportsmedicine and Orthopaedic Center, found Kathy had articular cartilage damage but was an ideal candidate for a cartilage transplant - she was an active, fit adult and was dedicated to her physical therapy. Now, Kathy's back to work and the sport she loves. "Mentally, an injury takes a toll," she says. "Everything was taken away from me when I became grounded. Now I feel like I have my life back!"

A partial knee replacement can restore people to an active lifestyle and postpone a total knee replacement (TKR). Lucky for Jim, he was one of the first Cincinnatians to try out a medial mobile bearing unicompartmental knee replacement.

In his job, Jim needed to be mobile, but the pain in his knee wouldn't allow it. "I was dealing with a pain level I couldn't put up with anymore. Plus, it completely eliminated the things I liked to do," he says.

Dr. Michael Welch says this is the only partial implant with a mobile bearing, which means it's going to last longer for patients. "That's what we're going after - keeping patients active and happy for as long as possible." Fortunately, Jim was the perfect candidate for the new implant Dr. Welch offered.

Incredibly, Jim was up right after surgery doing physical therapy. With partial replacements, procedures are less invasive with a shorter hospital stay that's less painful.

For younger patients, such as 35-year-old Karen, pain is an everyday occurrence, but they've put off having a total joint replacement (TJR) surgery - oftentimes it's because they fear having to undergo revision procedures as they age. Fortunately, improved technology available to Deaconess Joint Replacement Center patients means joint implants often are lasting longer and procedures are becoming less invasive.

Karen experienced extreme pain, swelling and weakness before consulting with Dr. Frank Noyes about her knee. "It was awful. I couldn't dance or go to concerts or walk on my treadmill. My knee would give out from the pressure or swell so badly the next day that I couldn't stand or walk," she says. All because of an arthritic knee cap. Fortunately, Dr. Noyes had a solution. Called a patellar femoral replacement, Dr. Noyes took off Karen's old knee cap and replaced it with new partial knee implant.

After only three months of recovery, Karen was back to her pre-pain, active lifestyle. "Because I was younger, I didn't want to have the total knee replacement. I just didn't need it," she says.

As technology and implants improve, so do their longevity rates, which makes them appealing for younger patients who would otherwise put off a total joint replacement. However, Dr. Noyes advises all patients who receive a partial joint replacement that at some future point they may have to undergo revision surgery for a TJR.

If you think you're too young or too old for a joint replacement, think again! It's never too late (or too soon) to get back to an active lifestyle. Take Ralph Zerhusen for example. Dr. Michael Welch replaced his hip last June at 84 years of age. Ralph wanted to be ready for a pain-free 2006 golf season. He's been out already this year, even though he admits it was a little cold. He couldn't wait to be active again.

"I love to play golf, and didn't want to quit. This way, I can keep playing and enjoying being active."

Before surgery, Ralph says activities like putting on his socks and shoes and reaching for his ball in the cup were next to impossible; his buddy had to help him. "It was embarrassing. But I'm back."

Ralph says Dr. Welch didn't worry much about Ralph's age, even though he is one of Dr. Welch's oldest patients. "I try not to act like I'm 84. Dr. Welch knew I was active and that I wanted to get back at it."