The doctors refer to it as a knee scope, and they insert some sort of small camera into your knee to check out the problems. You can leave the hospital within a couple hours of the surgery but you have to stay off it completely for a few days and elevate it, and then take it easy and do some strengthening excerises for a month or two before you can get back to your normal routine. Recently I turned wrong and heard a pop and based on the pain and lack of knee function I'll be looking into this some more.
