Care Abroad

a procedureTotal knee replacement

also: total knee arthroplasty · TKA · knee arthroplasty · knee replacement

Surgeons say TKA. Package pages say total knee replacement. Brokers say knee, and mean either one knee or two without saying which.

The worn surfaces of the knee are cut away and replaced with metal and plastic: a femoral component on the thigh bone, a tibial tray on the shin, a polyethylene bearing between them, and often a patellar button behind the kneecap. It is done for arthritis that has stopped responding to anything else. Recovery runs in weeks, not days, and the implant itself is a separate purchase from the operation on most package price lists.

How long it takes

In hospital3.0 dBefore a flight10 dBack to ordinary use84 d
The numbers behind this
Days
In hospital3.0
Before a flight10
Back to ordinary use84
Root. arthroplasty: Greek arthron, a joint, plus plastos, moulded — a joint remoulded. The word predates the implant by a century and once meant cutting a new joint surface out of the patient's own bone.
bilateral means both knees in one anaesthetic; unilateral means one. A package priced for one is roughly half a package priced for two, and the two words are easy to miss on a price page. Trade practice

The story Trade practice

Knee replacement is one of the two or three operations that built cross-border care, for a reason that has nothing to do with surgery: it is elective, it is standardised, it is expensive at home, and the queue for it is long in every country that funds healthcare publicly. A patient who cannot walk to the shops and has been told to wait fourteen months has a motive that a patient facing an emergency does not.

Trade practice — the operation also suits the package model better than almost anything else. The steps are the same everywhere, the implant comes from one of four or five multinational manufacturers, and the length of stay is predictable enough that a hospital can quote a fixed price and mostly hold to it. That is why the price pages exist for knees and hips and not for, say, a pancreatic resection.

Inference — the same standardisation is what makes the published prices comparable at all, and it is also what makes them misleading. A package that names three nights and excludes the implant is quoting a different object from one that names five nights and includes it.

How it works Trade practice

Regional anaesthesia is usual — a spinal or an epidural with sedation — because it lowers the rate of clots and lets the patient begin moving sooner. The surgeon opens the front of the knee, cuts the ends of the femur and tibia to jigs, trials the components, cements or press-fits them, closes, and the physiotherapist has the patient standing the same day or the next. Published packages usually name three to five nights on the ward. The implant is billed separately by most hospitals that publish a package price, and it is frequently the largest single line.

Today Cited

Where a price is published at all, a unilateral knee runs from roughly ten thousand US dollars in Southeast Asia to several times that in the United States, and every figure on this site's price table names its own date, currency and what it includes. The comparison that matters is not the headline number: it is the headline number plus the implant, plus the nights past the package, plus the flight, plus the follow-up at home that nobody quoted.

Notes

This page describes an operation. It is not advice about whether to have one, or where.

What it costs where anyone publishes a price

10,00020,000ThailandUnited Kingdom
a provider's package pricea state tariff or what a payer refundsa list price, an estimate or an advertised rangelogarithmic scale, US$
5 published prices for this procedure, across 2 countries.
The 5 prices behind this chart

Dollar figures are the published price put through one dated rate table; the published currency and date are in the next columns.

CountryKindUS$As publishedDatedSource
Thailandquoted-range10,00010,000–16,000 USD2026-09-17page
Thailandpackage10,707356,500 THB2026-09-16page
Thailandpackage15,786525,600 THB2026-09-16page
Thailandpackage28,383945,000 THB2026-09-16page
United Kingdomlist18,59613,799 GBP2026-04page

Every price this directory has read, for every procedure, sits together on the prices page.

Published prices Cited · bumrungrad-joint04

Each is a number read off a page on the date named, in the currency the provider bills in. Dollars are that number through one dated rate table.

356,500 THB ≈ US$10,707

package · Bumrungrad International Hospital · for Total knee replacement

Includes.

Excludes.

Published price dated 2026-09-16 · dollars at the rate of Wed, 16 Sep 2026 · the page it was read from · package JOINT04, price stated valid until 31 December 2026. The exclusion list is longer than the inclusion list, and the implant — often the single largest line on a knee bill — sits on it. The page also carries an eligibility block above the inclusion list: the package is for the patient without complication, and it names who does not qualify. A package price is therefore a price for the straightforward case, which is the thing it is easy to read past.

525,600 THB ≈ US$15,786

package · Bumrungrad International Hospital · for Total knee replacement

Includes.

Excludes.

Published price dated 2026-09-16 · dollars at the rate of Wed, 16 Sep 2026 · the page it was read from · bilateral, listed at 525,600 THB against a struck-through 584,000 THB. Two knees for less than twice one knee is the usual shape of a bilateral price.

13,799 GBP ≈ US$18,596

list · United Kingdom · United Kingdom · for Total knee replacement

Includes.

Excludes.

Published price dated 2026-04 · dollars at the rate of Wed, 16 Sep 2026 · the page it was read from · Self-pay list price, the page stating "Prices correct as at April 2026". Seven of the nine things the Bangkok package excludes sit inside this one. The implant is named on neither side — not as an inclusion here and not as a price anywhere this project could read — which is a different silence from the Bangkok exclusion rather than a smaller one.

945,000 THB ≈ US$28,383

package · Bumrungrad International Hospital · for Total knee replacement

Includes.

Excludes.

Published price dated 2026-09-16 · dollars at the rate of Wed, 16 Sep 2026 · the page it was read from · robot-assisted bilateral, listed at 945,000 THB against a struck-through 1,050,000 THB. The robot is a price tier, and whether it changes outcomes is argued in the literature rather than settled.

1 more published prices for this procedure sit on other records — all of them together are on the prices page.

The particulars

familyorthopaedic
settinginpatient
anaesthesiaregional
regionEverywhere
stay days3
days before flying10
recovery weeks12
about those numbersThree nights is the ward stay named in the Bumrungrad package read for this record, not a clinical standard; stays elsewhere run longer. The ten-day figure is the CDC's guidance not to fly for ten days after chest or abdominal surgery, which orthopaedic teams commonly apply to major lower-limb surgery for the clot risk; the twelve weeks is the usual span quoted for getting back to ordinary walking, and it varies widely. (2026-09-16) · source
linksBumrungrad package JOINT04
confidencehigh · updated 2026-09-17

Not to be confused with

What it connects to

a procedureTotal hip replacementThe same trade, the other joint — and the one whose package price is usually higher.and of this page it says: The same trade, the other joint — and the cheaper package at the same Bangkok hospital, by 68,700 baht.a hospitalBumrungrad International HospitalPublishes the knee package this page reads, implant excluded.and of this page it says: One of the operations it sells at a published fixed price, implant excluded.a countryThailandWhere the knee package on this page is sold.and of this page it says: One of the operations sold here at a published fixed price.a wordPackage priceThe pricing form this operation is usually sold in, and the reason its exclusions matter.and of this page it says: The operation whose package this record reads, implant excluded.a riskThe implant is excludedThe line item this operation's headline price usually leaves out.and of this page it says: The operation this exclusion was read off, and the one where the device is often the largest line.a riskFlying after surgeryThe clot risk that sets how long after this operation a patient can board.and of this page it says: Major lower-limb surgery, where orthopaedic teams commonly apply the same ten-day interval for the clot risk.a long oneThe queue is the productThe queue at home that sends most knee patients abroad in the first place.and of this page it says: The operation the queue sends abroad more than any other.a riskThe follow-up gapWho takes the stitches out, and who sees the knee at six weeks.and of this page it says: Six-week and twelve-week reviews, and the physiotherapy between them, sit outside every package this site has read.a seriesCurrent health expenditure per personThe series behind the map of what each country spends on health per person.

Pages that point here

a country · on this pageCanada61% of them done inside six months in 2024 — the operation that defines this market.a cluster · on this pageBangkokSold here at a published fixed price, implant billed separately.a cluster · on this pageBengaluruSold on an estimate in the central hospitals rather than as a package.a cluster · on this pageColomboQuoted here itemised rather than as a package.a cluster · on this pageJohannesburgThe elective end of the same city, sold on an exchange rate.a procedure · on this pageAnterior cruciate ligament reconstructionThe other knee on the price table, thirty years further on.a procedure · on this pageCataract surgeryThe other operation whose price page turns on which implant is in the package.a procedure · on this pageHeart valve replacementThe other implant operation whose package price excludes the implant.a procedure · on this pageKnee arthroscopyWhat the arthritic knee ends up having when the keyhole work does not hold.a procedure · on this pageTotal shoulder replacementThe operation whose package pages set the shape this one is missing from.a hospital · on this pageHospital CIMA San JoséAmong the operations the Escazú cluster sells, with the recovery stay in a hotel rather than a ward.a hospital · on this pageMax Super Speciality Hospital, SaketOne of the operations the Delhi corridor sells to foreign patients, quoted rather than listed.a risk · on this pageFitness for anaesthesia, assessed on arrivalThe operation whose package bar this record was read off.a risk · on this pageBlood supply safetyThe package whose exclusion list names blood transfusion as a charge.a risk · on this pageDeep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolismMajor lower-limb surgery, where regional anaesthesia is preferred partly to lower this risk.a risk · on this pageSurgical site infectionThe operation where an infection means the implant comes out.an event · on this pageThe 2020 shutdownThe kind of planned operation the cancellation modelling was about.a word · on this pageBundled paymentThe operation these programmes were built around, at home and abroad alike.a word · on this pageLength of stayThe operation whose three-night package this record reads.a series · on this pageOECD waiting times for elective surgeryOne of the seven procedures, and the one this site prices most closely.a long one · on this pageIs it cheaperThe operation worked end to end on this page.a long one · on this pageThe price that isn'tThe operation whose package names the exclusion in its own title.

Sources

Where it came from: Cited a source named here · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Trade practice how the trade works, hedged · Inference this project's own reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.

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