Suns team physician Thomas Carter, who will perform the surgery, said nothing on the MRI exam taken Sunday suggested that there would be a need for anything more than a 15- to 20-minute removal of one loose body that is floating in Stoudemire's knee joint. [...]
"The right knee is the one where he has some wear and tear of his kneecap and that's what causes the loose body," Carter said. "To have an abrupt change like that (with last week's swelling), it tells us there's something acute like a loose body.
"There's one piece floating around in the joint. It's just enough to irritate the joint and cause swelling."
Carter likened it to the arthroscopy that Raja Bell underwent successfully in July. Stoudemire would need only a day or two on crutches before he could begin rehabilitation, Carter said.
Stoudemire's right knee was also scoped toward the end of the 2005-06 season to remove a cyst and debris.