What Is Arthroscopy?

Written by Nicole Schmidt
Medically Reviewed by Zilpah Sheikh, MD on April 28, 2025
9 min read

Arthroscopic surgery is a type of minor surgery that doctors use to look inside a joint and often fix any problems they see at the same time. It’s done on an outpatient basis, which means you can go home the same day. Your doctor may recommend it if you have joint pain, inflammation, an injury, or damage that has built up over time.

You can have arthroscopic surgery on any joint, but it’s most often done on the knee, shoulder, elbow, ankle, hip, or wrist.

During the procedure, your doctor will make a few small cuts near the joint, then insert a tool called an arthroscope — a long, thin tube equipped with a video camera and a light. The arthroscope is connected to a monitor, which displays images of the joint so your doctor can get a better look. If they see something that needs to be fixed, they can usually repair it during the same surgery by passing thin surgical tools through the same cuts.

Advancements in the technology and instruments used for arthroscopic surgery have come a long way, says Xinning Li, MD, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon at Boston Medical Center and professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. “We can do a lot more now than we could 20 years ago,” he says. “You get better visualization and you can fix more types of tears in different locations arthroscopically than you can with open surgery.”

Arthroscopic knee surgery

If you have knee pain that doesn’t get better with rest, ice, or physical therapy, your doctor may recommend arthroscopy to find and treat the problem. Surgeons often use this type of knee surgery to repair tendons (which connect muscles to bones), ligaments (which connect bones to each other), and cartilage. Surgeons can also use it to remove damaged or inflamed tissue. 

Some of the most common knee problems that doctors diagnose and treat with arthroscopy include:

  • Tears in soft tissues, including anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) tears
  • Bursitis, which causes painful swelling in your knee joint
  • Bone fractures
  • Inflammation
  • Kneecap misalignment

Knee surgery is the most common type of arthroscopy. 

Arthroscopic shoulder surgery

Shoulder arthroscopy is the second most common type of orthopedic surgery. If you have shoulder pain that doesn’t get better with rest, physical therapy, or medication, your doctor may recommend this surgery to help relieve your symptoms.

Most shoulder problems happen because of an injury, overuse, or age-related wear and tear. During arthroscopy, the surgeon can remove inflamed tissue and treat other issues, such as:

  • Rotator cuff tears
  • Bone spurs
  • Nonresponsive frozen shoulder, which causes pain and stiffness
  • Injuries to the tissue around your shoulder socket 
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Torn ligaments
  • Shoulder dislocations that keep happening

Elbow arthroscopic surgery

Your doctor may recommend elbow arthroscopy if you have pain, inflammation, or stiffness that doesn’t get better with nonsurgical treatments. This procedure can help ease pain and other symptoms caused by damage to the cartilage or soft tissues around your elbow joint.

Some common problems that elbow arthroscopy can treat include: 

  • Tennis elbow, often caused by overuse (not necessarily from playing tennis)
  • Loose cartilage or bone fragments
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Certain fractures

Arthroscopic surgery for your ankle

If you have ankle pain or trouble moving your ankle properly, and treatments such as steroid injections or physical therapy haven’t helped, your doctor may suggest ankle arthroscopy to fix the problem. 

Ankle arthroscopy can treat several conditions, including: 

  • Bone deformities that make it hard to stand or move around 
  • Swelling from overuse
  • Loose or damaged bones or cartilage
  • Torn ligaments

Arthroscopic hip surgery

Because it’s minimally invasive and has a quicker recovery time, hip arthroscopy is a common way to treat hip problems. If you’re dealing with hip pain or have trouble moving around and other treatments haven’t helped, your doctor may suggest hip arthroscopy as a next step.

Hip arthroscopy can help treat several conditions, including:

  • Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), when the bones in your hip rub together and cause pain or limit movement
  • Tears to the soft tissue around your hip socket, called labral tears
  • Loose bone or cartilage that needs to be removed
  • Hip dysplasia, when the hip joints don’t properly fit together 
  • Tendon tears

If you have more serious cartilage damage, severe arthritis, or if hip arthroscopy doesn’t relieve your symptoms, your doctor may suggest a total hip replacement instead.

Wrist arthroscopic surgery

Wrist surgery is the third most common type of arthroscopy. Doctors use it to treat pain, swelling, or clicking in the wrist joint. Some conditions that can be treated with wrist arthroscopy include:

  • Cysts
  • Sprains
  • Fractures
  • Inflammatory arthritis 
  • Tissue or cartilage tears

Preparing for arthroscopy is just like preparing for any other surgery, says Li. “The most important thing is to make sure you’re safe enough to go into surgery, especially if you have a very complex medical history,” he says.

A few weeks before your arthroscopy, you’ll meet with your doctor to discuss your overall health. During this appointment, they’ll review your medical history, allergies, and order basic tests, such as blood tests. Be sure to tell your doctor about any medications or vitamins you are taking.

The night before your surgery, do not drink or eat anything unless your doctor tells you otherwise. They might give you some soapy sponges to use to scrub your knee or shoulder before you go in for the procedure.

On the day of surgery, leave all jewelry, watches, and other valuables at home. Wear comfortable clothing that is easy to put on and take off.

Make sure to arrange a ride home afterward. You won’t be able to drive yourself due to the anesthesia.

Your doctor will perform arthroscopic surgery in a hospital or outpatient operating room. The type of anesthesia you’ll receive depends on the joint being treated and what your surgeon suspects is causing the problem. You may have:

  • General anesthesia, which means you’ll be asleep during surgery 
  • Spinal anesthesia, which numbs the lower part of your body below your waist
  • Local anesthesia, which numbs the area you’re having surgery on. You’ll be awake for the procedure, but you won’t feel anything.

During the surgery, your doctor will make a small cut, called an incision, that’s about the size of a buttonhole, then insert special pencil-thin instruments that help them look at and fix any joint problems. One of those tools is an arthroscope, which has a tiny camera lens and a light. The camera sends images to a connected screen so the doctor can see inside the joint. They will also fill the joint with sterile fluid to widen it, making it easier to see.

Once they’ve taken a look, they can diagnose the problem and decide if any repairs are needed. If so, your doctor will make a few more small cuts around the joint (called portals) and insert other thin tools that can cut, shave, grasp, and attach stitches to the bone as needed.

If the problem is more serious and can’t be fixed with arthroscopy alone, your doctor may switch to traditional “open” surgery while you’re still in the operating room.

When they’re finished, they’ll remove all the tools and close the incisions with special tape or stitches.

When the arthroscopy is over, you'll be taken to a recovery room, where you'll rest for about an hour or more while the anesthesia wears off. It’s normal to have some pain or discomfort in the joint after surgery. Your doctor may prescribe pain medication and suggest gentle exercise. They might also prescribe aspirin or other medication to prevent blood clots.

To help manage any swelling and pain:

  • Apply ice to the area for the first 24 hours.
  • If you’ve had arthroscopy on your knee, keep your leg elevated.
  • Take pain medicines as prescribed.
  • Avoid alcohol while you’re on pain medication.

Depending on the joint and procedure, you may need crutches, a splint, or a sling for support during your recovery.

One of the benefits of arthroscopic surgery is that it usually causes less joint pain and stiffness than open surgery. Recovery is usually quicker, too.

You’ll have a few small puncture wounds where the arthroscopic tools went into your body. The day after surgery, you may be able to remove the surgical bandages and replace them with small strips to cover the incisions. Your doctor will remove nondissolvable stitches after a week or two.

While your wounds heal, you’ll have to keep the site as dry as possible. This means covering them with a plastic bag when you shower.

Your doctor will tell you what activities to avoid when you go home. You can often go back to work or school within a few days of surgery, but full recovery usually takes several months. For some people, depending on the surgery type, it may take up to a year to feel completely normal.

“Even minimally invasive surgeries with small incisions cause trauma to the body, and it takes time to heal from that,” says Li. It’s important to work with a good physical therapist and stick to your postsurgery plan, he says. If you’re an athlete, your therapist will likely do strength and range of motion tests on the joint to make sure it’s safe for you to get back to your sport.
 

Arthroscopic knee surgery recovery time

Knee arthroscopy is usually an outpatient procedure, so you should be able to go home the same day. In some cases, you might need to stay overnight. Recovery time can vary depending on your injury, but Li says that it can take anywhere from six months to a year to feel completely normal.

While you’re recovering, make sure to avoid putting weight on your knee. You may need crutches or a walker to help you get around at first. You should also try to keep your knee raised above your heart to help with pain and swelling. 

Your doctor will recommend physical therapy exercises to help you build up strength and improve movement. It’s also a good idea to avoid high-impact exercise, such as running, until your doctor gives you the go-ahead.

Complications from this type of surgery are rare, but they can happen. Some people have blood clots, knee stiffness, or swelling caused by blood pooling in the knee. Your doctor will explain what to watch for and how to manage any symptoms if they come up.

Complications from arthroscopic surgery are uncommon — they happen in fewer than 1 in 100 cases. But like with any surgery, there are still some possible complications, including infection, blood clots, damage to the blood vessels or nerves, and excessive bleeding or swelling. Instruments can also break during surgery.

Be sure to follow all of your postsurgery instructions, and call your doctor right away if you have any of these symptoms:

  • Fever
  • Pain that gets worse
  • Severe swelling
  • Numbness or tingling
  • Discolored or smelly fluid seeping from the surgical site

Arthroscopic surgery is a common, minimally invasive procedure that doctors use to diagnose and treat joint problems — most often in the knee, shoulder, or wrist. It’s usually done as an outpatient surgery (meaning you can go home the same day). Recovery is typically easier than with traditional open surgery. If you have ongoing joint pain or trouble moving a joint, talk to your doctor to see if arthroscopy could help. Make sure to follow all instructions before and after the surgery for a safe and easy recovery. 

Is arthroscopy a major surgery?

Arthroscopy is a minimally invasive surgery. It usually involves smaller cuts and a shorter recovery time than traditional open surgery. 

Is an arthroscopy painful?

You won’t feel any pain during an arthroscopy because it’s done with anesthesia. After surgery, it’s normal to have some pain or discomfort, but your doctor can usually prescribe pain medication to help manage it.

Who needs an arthroscopy?

People who have joint pain, swelling, or stiffness that doesn’t improve with nonsurgical treatment options may benefit from arthroscopy.

What is the cost of knee arthroscopy?

The cost of a knee arthroscopy can vary depending on your insurance, but usually ranges from $5,000 to $10,000.

Is arthroscopy better than MRI?

An MRI helps diagnose joint problems, but arthroscopy can both diagnose and treat issues at the same time. Your doctor will recommend the best option based on your specific injury.