I have had two surgeries on my knee due to the cartilidge disintigrating. The ragged edges rub underneath my kneecap, and the surgery is to trim the ragged edges. Has anyone had this before? What is this called? Is it a form of arthritis? Am I eventually going to have no cartilidge left?
Is this something that could also be why I have TMJ and have just been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in my lower back?
2007-02-14 08:01:59 · 5 answers · asked by MICHELLE S 2 in Health ➔ General Health Care ➔ Pain & Pain Management
You have Osteoarthritis,I have it , surgery aint doing shiit for it,but there is a great medicine for it,called Surpatz....5 injections into the joint...ask your doc about it.
2007-02-14 08:08:25 · answer #1 · answered by Einstein 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have had cartilage problems for about 12 years and had about 10 surgeries before I finally had almost none left. Cartilage does not regenerate and will only get worse over time unfortunately. It is not arthritis that you have. It is probably something called osteochondritis dessecans or chondromalaysia. Many people think the only cure for this after repeated surgical attempts have failed is a knee replacement. This is not always so. I don't know how old you are, but if you are young enough you can have a procedure called ACI, autologous chondrocyte implantation. A surgeon who is trained to perform this operation first takes a biopsy of a small piece of cartilage. The cartilage is then sent to a laboratory where chondorcytes, or cartilage cells are grown from it. A few weeks later the doctor implants these chondrocytes. It is an open knee surgery and the recovery is long and painful, but it can potentially keep you from having a knee replacement. I had this procedure done on Dec 5th and I am just about ready to get off crutches in a week or so, to give you an idea of how long the recovery is. It involves physical therapy everyday. Not all insurance companies will pay for it, however so it is not always an option for people and many people do not even know about it. Also surgeons rarely perform this surgery on people older than their 20s or 30s because there is no information in the literature on how people older than that recover. There are many other simple surgeries that can be done to stop the cartilage degeneration, but just know that if yours gets terrible, there is always an alternative to a total knee replacement. I hope that helped.
2007-02-16 01:02:23 · answer #2 · answered by pobrecita 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Eventually by the sounds of it, you will have to have a knee repacement surgery as you can not repair the damage,,,the menisicus,,aka,,cartilidge,,does not grow back and after they trim and repair,,gets smaller till it's time for replacement,,but they only like to do this with ppl in there 60's as the repacement only lasts for 12 years,,my friend is 52 and the doctor did the surgery,but did not want to she was really bad,,myself have tear and was fixed for now,,but doc says i'll be back and i', 42 and work full time walking 8 hours long,,so i', sure i'm in for a long hull with this knee problem,,good luck and have the surgery.
2007-02-15 00:31:48 · answer #3 · answered by lisadivirgilio 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry but you will probably have to have a total knee replacement soon. I had the miscroscopic knee surgery in Nov. 2006 for torn meniscus and ligaments..more or less..wear and tear, old age? I just had to have a total hip replacement 4 weeks ago, i had to have the knee surgery first so that i could do rehab on my hip after surgery. It's been a little over 4 weeks and i'm doing great! The pain was AWFUL before the surgery!! WORSE than my 2 back surgeries........yes, i have ddd AND what's worse is i have severe scoliosis, trust me, just be glad you don't have that. Right now my back hurts WORSE than my hip??????????? NOW, your knee could be caused by your bad back........that is what happened to me. After my back surgeries, my lumber was fused and i lost 2 inches in height which threw my body ALL out of whack. About 6 months after back surgery i started going to physical therapy and all of a sudden my hip started hurting and my knee blew up!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?! So now i'm working on getting my spine back in agignment....i have alot of physical therapy to look forward to????? and of course i'm in pain management............i had NO cartilidge in my hip so it was rubbing bone on bone! i could hardly walk but after the surgery the pain went away IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD luck, if you have any ?????????????? you can email me if ya want.
2007-02-14 17:20:35 · answer #4 · answered by VICTORIA L 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
See a chiropractor
Read The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Davies, you will be surprised.
2007-02-15 00:10:16 · answer #5 · answered by Keko 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋