Since the first knee replacement surgery was carried out in 1968, total knee replacements have become not only one of the most common, but also most successful procedures in all of medicine. Improvements in surgical materials and techniques have greatly increased the procedure’s effectiveness, and according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, more than 600,000 knee replacements are performed each year in the United States alone. While the procedure is generally effective from a scientific and medical perspective, less scholarly attention has been given to how the consumer, or patient feels about it. Regardless of the outcome or the skills of the orthopedic surgeon, knee replacement surgery is a painful procedure, followed by a further period of intense, and again painful, rehabilitation. While some patients proclaim that a knee replacement has given them their lives back again, others wish that they had never had it done.