More important than that. I am seriously considering changing doctors. This new doctor told me looking at my images and all 3 compartments having arthritis, that a partial would not be his recommendation. There are several reasons I would rather see him. The 1st doctor after looking at the images started to say he thought a TKR would be best. I said what about a partial and if I can get 10 years out of it wouldn't having a TKR done at 67 be better than 57? He agreed and I scheduled surgery.
If you have arthritis in more than one compartment and your first surgeon agreed to do a partial knee replacement, you need to switch surgeons. It is highly unlikely that you would get anywhere near 10 years out of a partial knee replacement as the arthritic degeneration would continue in the remaining compartments. Frankly, I've never heard of a surgeon agreeing to do a partial replacement if he knew arthritis was present in all the knee compartments. It doesn't sound like your first surgeon was reading the x-rays properly.
Even if x-rays show arthritis in only one compartment, you always want an experienced surgeon who will evaluate your knee once he's in there. You cannot always see everything on an x-ray. He should be flexible to do either a PKR or a TKR, whichever is more appropriate.
Please try not to let the idea of a revision down the road scare you. You may only be 56 years old, but your knee could very well be "much older" in terms of damage done by arthritis. It's important to have a surgeon who can evaluate your situation and completely repair whatever damage is there so you can move on with your life. Revisions are successfully done when needed....even multiple times. It's very possible you could have quite a long run with a full TKR done now. Not taking care of your arthritis completely with a PKR will just about guarantee you additional pain and problems in the near term.
I asked him how many knees he does a year he said 150-200 how can fact check that? Do I even want to? That's what I want to hear right. It will push it out another month.
It can be difficult to find out the truth behind numbers a doctor tells you. Mostly you must take them on their word. However, "doing 150-200 knees annually" wouldn't tell the whole story. If you were considering a PKR, you'd want to know how many of THOSE he does. And does the 150-200 mean knee replacements or just knee surgeries? You'd want to know his success rate and his infection rate.
Here is a site where you can find out a bit more about a surgeon's rating in the orthopedic community. The figures are taken solely from Medicare data, so even this doesn't give the whole picture.