carey@mhuxi.UUCP (carey) (03/14/86)
My doctor tells me that the torn cartilage in my knee is best repaired by arthroscopic (sp?) procedure. I understand the procedure but would be interested in any comments regarding its risks, side-effects (if any), success rate, alternatives, etc. Frank Carey AT&T Bell Laboratories Short Hills, N. J. 201/564-2303 ...ihnp4!mhuxi!carey
werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (03/24/86)
I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee last September and highly recommend it (when done by a good surgeon, like Dr. Julian here in Austin, the "caretaker" of the UT-football team for langer than a decade). I had problems for over 10 years due to soccer-injuries received in the early and mid-seventies (broken leg, stretched ligaments, torn miniscus cartlidge, leaving me with a 'trick-knee', which would 'lock' on me from time to time during a twisting motion. Finally, in late August 85, my trick-knee went out on me completely, locking up the knee and not coming unlocked anymore (which it had been doing for many years before). Well I had been warned and had been expecting it, but it was still a rather bad experience having to be carried off the field ( a first; I had always walked off, even with broken bones) Some years earlier I had an arthroscopic study done on the knee, where a fluid is injected which allows an X-ray to display the cartlidge of the knee, and which had shown that "it looked like a spider-web". So the doctor knew what he needed and indicated that immediate surgery was necessary. Incredible as it may sound to you, even though general anastesia is used, these days this operation is done on an 'outpatient basis', which means that I checked into the hospital at 9am, was 'out & under' at 1pm, woke up at 5pm, had a hospital dinner and walked out (on crutches) before 6:30pm. When I went to visit the doctor's office the next morning, I was told to put 50% weight on my leg (which had me wondering how to determine 50%, of course) rather than using only the crutches and my left leg. 2 days later I was tired of the crutches and put them away, not needing them anymore. You start an immediate therapeutic exercise program, to strenghten the muscles around the knee and the leg in general, but that's another story. At UT, we also have a very respected Professor Emeritus, Dr. Karl Klein, who keeps office hours still (to have something to do, he says, other than mowing the lawn) and who was kind enough to see me and analyze my condition. He particularly likes to work with long-distance runners (which I am not), but then I had visited him 10 years earlier, when my injuries had taken place and I needed some therapy after broken bone and stretched ligaments and torn cartlidge. Dr. Klein analyzed my posture, measurement and motions, and determined that I "walked like a duck" because my right leg was 1cm shorter than the left, and that I needed 'lifters' to help correct the problem of the resulting 'improper' leg motion when walking and running, which had (supposedly) led to weakening and exposure to injury otherwise less likely when motion and measurements are 'better'. I found this particularly fascinating (kind of) because I remember that when 5 years old, a doctor made a similar comment about "having a walk like a duck" to my mother, but without analyzing it any further or making any recommendations for corrective action. (yes, it angers me to think that that doctor could have recommended treatment and prevented my later history of injury) Dr. Klein gave me an exercise program I could do on my own without having to go to a gym, and he also explained to me why the program I had been put on by "the other" therapist wasn't really doing much more than strengthening muscles (necessary, sure) but wasn't addressing the underlying problem at all. He said, that in his experience, I could work myself into shape to be doing competitive sports again as early as 6 weeks later. Unfortunately, I did not have the will or desire for competitive sports anymore, but in general I am convinced that he has had other patients who succeeded in this. I never regretted not having the open-knee surgery done in the mid-seventies, when I was warned that it would take close to a year before I should expect to do competitive sports again; and also that there was a significant chance that I would be left with a degree of stiffness in the knee which might impair me permanently from doing any sports (or worse). For what it's worth, I hope your injuries do not make open-knee surgery necessary (a certain chance of which exists always, that an arthroscopic surgery has to be changed in mid-stream to the open-knee procedure ... said my doctor before we ever got to the hospital) ---Werner "the Kraut who used to walk like a duck" ((-: