Successful surgery

[kevin47881]

Today was the day to get my knee scoped to find out the cause of significant pain over the past 26 months. We tried every treatment available (therapy, cortisone, synvisc injections, etc.) to no avail. He found one "soft spot" which was repaired and a ton of scar tissue that was cleaned up. He told Debbie there was so much scar tissue he had great difficulty getting the scope into the knee. The good news is that there is no structure damage.

Anyway, I'm typing this 13 hours post op with limited pain (thanks to meds) and walking without crutches (the surgeon is fine with this). I'm not sure what tomorrow holds during PT but so far so good!

I'm hopeful to be able to finally complete my IR now that I'll be able to apply pain free right rudder pressure.

 

[AcroBoy]

Good luck on your recovery. As an academic orthopaedic surgeon specializing in hips and knees, I also happen to do a lot of knee scopes. Just one question- did you ever have an MRI scan prior to surgery? The literature is very clear that doing surgery "to look and see what's wrong" is pretty much not such a great idea. Your history, physical exam, and imaging studies should always give the surgeon a good idea as to the cause of pain. If not, I personally would not want to put someone through the risk of an operation. On the other hand, if you had other prior operations, this can clearly cause scarring and a loss of motion, but not necessarily pain. Just a thought.

 

[kevin47881]

Good luck on your recovery. As an academic orthopaedic surgeon specializing in hips and knees, I also happen to do a lot of knee scopes. Just one question- did you ever have an MRI scan prior to surgery? The literature is very clear that doing surgery "to look and see what's wrong" is pretty much not such a great idea. Your history, physical exam, and imaging studies should always give the surgeon a good idea as to the cause of pain. If not, I personally would not want to put someone through the risk of an operation. On the other hand, if you had other prior operations, this can clearly cause scarring and a loss of motion, but not necessarily pain. Just a thought.

All great points. Yes, I had an MRI and X-rays all which were negative. About 25 years ago I had surgery on the same knee due to a broken patella with no adverse affects. There's really no way I can see causation between both situations but that's just a layman's knowledge. The thing that caused concerns for both surgeons (one recommended the other due to the first being at a loss for diagnosis) is that the joint would just swell up to the size of a cantaloupe in conjunction with severe motion limit without cause. The ortho that performed the surgery was hesitant to do the procedure for the reason you stated...he didn't know what he was looking for. FWIW, both surgeons trained under Dr. Andrews in Birmingham, AL. The first surgeon is also an Olympic ortho and past lead surgeon for the Titans (NFL) while the second is a surgeon for the Predators (NHL).

Thanks for your input, it is appreciated!

 

[nddons]

Good luck on your recovery. As an academic orthopaedic surgeon specializing in hips and knees, I also happen to do a lot of knee scopes. Just one question- did you ever have an MRI scan prior to surgery? The literature is very clear that doing surgery "to look and see what's wrong" is pretty much not such a great idea. Your history, physical exam, and imaging studies should always give the surgeon a good idea as to the cause of pain. If not, I personally would not want to put someone through the risk of an operation. On the other hand, if you had other prior operations, this can clearly cause scarring and a loss of motion, but not necessarily pain. Just a thought.

The science in this area has really advanced. My first minisectomy was in 1979, and I was in the hospital for 6 days and on crutches for a month. The only pre-surgery test was an arthrogram, a pleasant little procedure where they injected air and die into the knee and then bent it and twisted it while taking what seemed like a couple dozen x-rays.

My last arthroscopic knee surgery was in 1998, and I walked in at noon and walked out at 3:00. Unbelievable.

 

[AcroBoy]

In addition to doing a lot of these operations, I have also had personal experience, with three arthroscopies for meniscal tears from playing squash. There generally has to be a good mechanical reason why a knee swells and hurts- you certainly could be developing arthritis behind your patella following an old injury. This would typically hurt while climbing stairs, getting out of a chair, etc. However, an MRI should have shown some thinning or irregularity of the cartilage. Finding a "soft spot" would suggest you had some minimal arthritic changes in the articular cartilage. In my opinion, I would suggest not being too enamoured by team affiliations, or even who someone trained under. We had a local doc cover our NBA team who was at least ten years behind the times, and known to be not the greatest surgeon. Also, training under Jimmy Andrews is not the same as having him do the surgery himself (or under his direction by his fellows). Not all fellows and trainees are created equal, and their skills and judgement can also vary. The best bet for finding a surgeon, in my opinion, is to ask a nurse or tech who actually works in the operating room, and get their input. They see the surgeons working on a daily basis, and are a great judge of surgical skills and judgement. They know who cares, who's technically good, who's arrogant, and who is sloppy. However, everything you had done sounds very reasonable and logical, and the most important thing is for you to get a good result, but I would not be too swayed by professional sports affiliations, since team docs can be chosen by political or personal affiliations, and often use these affiliations as a marketing tool. Again, the most important thing is for you to get a pain free knee. Good luck.

 

[Dave2]

Glad to hear the good news. Trust me I know the feelings, presurgery you wonder if you'll ever walk normally again, and post you are thrilled, but wonder how long will it last. When I had mine done the doc said I'd probably develope arthritis in maybe 10 years or so. Well that was in '77 and I thank the Lord eveyday that I have no knee problems, now if He'd only fix the rest of what's wrong with me (no comments please )