This technique removes loose cartilage flaps followed by debridement of the walls of the lesion with the calcified cartilage removed down to the bony base. Havent even thought about crossfit as of yet, and havent played basketball. It did not swell and I took two weeks off just to be safe. I am 33yr old women I had surgery when I was 14 then 15 to remove cartilage, I have developed traumatic osteoarthritis. Done good. This is the healing response that is seen in microfracture surgery. This has been a very humbling experience for me. In order for microfracture surgery to be effective, the rehabilitation that follows must be performed as instructed. I’m beggining my info quest on what may be next to get my athletic life back. Leg raises are out of the question, I feel as though my leg is in locked position most of the day just like prior to the op. Before you go to the hospital for surgery, set up your home to make your recovery and life easier when you come back. So for all you guys I am now feeling positive and have hope but I know I will never be the same and wonder what my future holds but you certainly appreciate things a lot more when you’ve been through the longest and hardest rehab ever. I'm not sure what it all depends on, but the doc has said he's never regretted telling anyone to wait a few additional weeks rather than tell someone to get back on it too fast. A Real-World Approach to Diabetic Footcare, Orthotic management of CMT: Dynamic solutions for active lifestyles, Orthotic Management of CMT: Dynamic Solutions for Active Lifestyles, http://www.healio.com/orthopedics/knee/news/print/orthopedics-today/%7B035af345-dade-458b-bc76-513f33028d34%7D/microfracture-success-depends-not-only-on-the-operation-but-rehabilitation-as-well, https://lermagazine.com/article/microfracture-surprises-tarnish-the-experience, Practical analysis of the lower extremity custom and prefabricated ankle and knee bracing and foot orthotic medical literature, Evidence based lower extremity foot orthotic, diabetic footwear and foot, ankle and knee bracing device utilization, Cutting-edge clinical diabetes and lower extremity diabetic foot care and diabetic footwear and diabetic sock information, Plantar fasciitis, ankle sprains, patellofemoral, ITB, Illiotiial Band Syndrome, Diabetes, Achilles tendonitis, OA (osteoarthritis), Diabetic footwear usage and offloading techniques for diabetic transmetatarsal amputation and diabetic wound care, Pediatric lower limb foot, ankle and knee deformities and lower extremity treatment modalities for Cerebral Palsy, Club Foot, and flat foot. whilst i was in post op in the recovery room and half asleep my surgeon mentioned something about a thing called microfracture he had performed on me during the op. Working as a dentist, I am on and off my feet a lot. I expect to return to form. Can any younger folks give me a testimonial about recovery from micro fracture surgery, not someone who’s still trying to play basketball or go jogging in their 40’s and 50’s. Good luck all. The normal articular cartilage does not heal in this area, but the body can create a healing response of a different type of cartilage called fibrocartilage. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the pain subsides with time. Do this well in advance of your surgery. I know I’m commenting frequently. Treatment of articular cartilage defects in athletes: an analysis of functional outcome and lesion appearance. Clin Sports Med 2001;20(2):365-377. That in itself is maddening! I felt pretty good for awhile, but the pain has increased, soar and stiff much of the time. Straighten the knee you have had surgery on by tightening the thigh muscles. After reading all these comments/stories, I’m at a loss with regard to what I should be doing! They were small and well defined. Cartilage helps cushion and cover the area where bones meet in the joints. 16. The P.T. I’m in no hurry to get 100%. — Jordana Bieze Foster, Editor. It is a common procedure used to treat patients with full thickness damage to the articular cartilage that goes all the way down to the bone. My post op appt the PA i saw gave me a new knee brace w hinges on the sides and said things should get better once i strenghten my knee. At that visit, the patient is also counseled on the process to gradually wean themselves off the crutches. The clinician is reminded that because of the buoyancy effect of the water, the amount of weight bearing progressively decreases as the percentage of the body is submerged.15. Combined with the precise injection of her stems cells Abigail was able to avoid surgery as well as months of recovery from an invasive procedure. My knee is still swollen, and I am only icing after PT that I do 2x a day. I went home after surgery without crutches, andcwasxtold I was weight bearing!! I am a type A, and when not in the gym, I was running, spinning, biking, hiking, tele skiing, alpine skiing, snow shoeing or walking a golf course. All range of motion returned within a few months. Went back the next week and put a brave on and out of work agin. They did an MRI and it showed 2 cysts behind my knee, and a torn meniscus. I am extremely frustrated… Doc wants to do gel shots next week- is this going to help? I just tried to take it easy and not overexert anything. Now six weeks and in worse shape then before the surgery. The fluid just keeps coming back.. any sugestions or advice. After the surgery I was informed I had indeed had the partial menisectomy, but also chondroplasty and microfracture for a focal articular cartilage injury. I was given some pain meds, and they help a little bit but I cannot get comfortable to fall asleep. Boy do I wish I went there first! In June I could not even walk down gingerly a 5cm high stair. 10 wks post op and 3rd wk of back to work called Doc and he drew 50 cc of fluid off my knee. Therapist said this was normal. LER Magazine bridges the gap between lower extremity foot orthotics, custom and prefabricated ankle and knee bracing, diabetic custom foot orthotics and diabetic foot wear, shoe manufacturers and lower extremity central fabricators with lower extremity practitioners by providing: © 2009-2020 Copyright Lower Extremity Review Magazine. Without having this type of blood flow, articular cartilage injuries generally do not heal themselves. I’m able to walk comfortable but any additional load causes stabbing pain mentioned in some of the posts listed. Everything I have read, says that you are not supposed to bear weight for 6 weeks! I’m still on crutches(have to do 8 weeks). 2 of 2 Lions running back Reggie Bush is one athlete who has made a successful recovery from microfracture surgery. https://lermagazine.com/article/microfracture-surprises-tarnish-the-experience Your email address will not be published. In recent years, microfracture has come to the attention of the lay public as it has been successfully used on several high profile athletes. I am really hoping that working with him and my pt will get me back to the fit lifestyle that I am used to. Operartive Tech Orthop 1997;7(4):300-304. I am still having some pain and stiffness after a day at work as an electrician. Implementing one standardized rehabilitation protocol following autologous chondrocyte implantation or microfracture in the knee results in comparable physical therapy management. 1 of 3 Texans linebacker Jadeveon Clowney  is believed to be a good candidate for the microfracture surgery. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2008;40(2):200-205. Everybody hang in there though! Knee Post Operation-Microfracture Surgery. Of course this left my right leg extremely weak, but I do think it gave my knee a pretty good opportunity to heal. Reports in the literature are variable, but about 80% of patients find improvement in their symptoms. Knee microfracture surgery is a common method used for cartilage repair. I’m a running junkie. It sucks because before I had the locked knee, I was doing crossfit (while wearing a knee brace) and my knee seemed to be strong. I went to the doctor’s office today. The technique was frequently used in athletes after they injured their joints. I was supposed to walk out of the office but instead on crutches for two weeks. Timeline and Progression of Activity after Surgery *Different recovery timelines exist for varying degrees of injury and can change according to … These crutches are exhausting just to get around house etc. I feel my surgeon overstepped his boundaries big time since I had a very pointed conversation with him about not having MF. Do your research and PT and feel your body out. This means crutches or walker for this time period and no significant weight on the leg or walking for this time period. You only get one body. This is accomplished by gradually introducing the athlete into partial practices or team conditioning drills. Short term results looked promising, though the results often deteriorated over time. You will need 2 crutches for this period. The amount of weight put on the area of microfracture must be limited. This allows the cells to grow in develop in the area that underwent the microfracture treatment. My next appt with the consultant is this month which he may give me an injection but I was told last time that I wouldn’t feel the benefit for up to 4-6 months and takes 12 months to heal. Words cannot express the loathing I have for the mis information I have been given. For the first 2 weeks, no weight should be placed through the leg. Rehabilitation following microfracture for chondral injury in the knee. Some say then you should wear an off loader brace for some period. However, Oct 30 2013, that all changed when he decided in the operating room to do the MF surgery anyway. Although LER is a magazine for practitioners, not patients, this discussion inspired us to do another article looking more closely at microfracture from the patient’s perspective. They stand by their six-month timetable, but it’s been more than seven months since Bogut went under the knife, and his return date is still up in the air. Home exercises are supplemented with the use of stationary bicycle or aquatic ROM exercises when patients come to the physical therapy clinic or athletic training room. I appreciate any advice or feedback you can provide. I go to my first P.T. Now this is 2010 go back to running after say a month or two then soccer and eventually just randomly it will buckles. Why is this? Stuart Hershman, MD, is board-certified in orthopaedic surgery. The rehabilitation protocol utilized at our institution and outlined in the section that follows has been adapted from that described by microfracture pioneer Richard Steadman,MD, and colleagues.10. Buckwalter JA. Articular cartilage: injuries and potential for healing. I was really never given the info on how difficult that recovery would be. yep i have that same shooting pain once in a while and I can hardly walk. Based on Abigail’s results, it’s my opinion that microfracture surgery followed by therapy that fails to identify and correct biomechanical deficits is the equivalent of treating with coffee grounds! Hope to hear from someone. Not even to beat traffic across the street. I hope that I can return to normal life at some point. The problem of chondromalacia patellae. MD Microfracture surgery is a treatment option for people who have cartilage damage within a joint. I went in for surgery very reluctantly 5 weeks ago for meniscal tears. Physiother Theory Pract 2011;27(2):125-136. Clin Sports Med 2010;29(2):267-282. The Left (18 years ago) failed again after tripping and landing badly. Waiting will only cause tears to be worse (as they will continue to catch and tear deeper) and a torn ligament will NEVER repair itself, only cause more damage to cartilage and meniscus. Of course this left my right leg extremely weak, but I do think it gave my knee a pretty good opportunity to heal. When the microfracture is on the top of the shin bone (tibia) or the end of the thigh bone (femur), weight is limited by having a patient use crutches. ACI surgery is one option but apprehensive due to invasive procedure. The field of medicine is advancing rapidly. After one month and being able to fully weight bear, I still cannot straighten my leg fully or bend my knee past 90 degrees. The pain is getting a little bit less but not to where I thought (and was told) I would be after two weeks. Stationary biking without resistance and a deep-water exercise program begin 1 to 2 weeks after surgery. Had a post-surgery follow-up visit with the OS 6 days following surgery. As always, the presence of a knee effusion indicates that the joint is being negatively stressed with the addition of these progressive loads. This article recommends 20 to 30 percent weightbearing for eight weeks. Michael Shaffer PT, ATC, OCS, is the Coordinator for Sports Rehabilitation at the Institute for Orthopaedics, Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Iowa. I had a Acl replacement a meniscus tear and a microfracture this injury happend November 3rd playing soccer with my kids. My pt says my mantra should be “slow and steady”. I informed myself very well before surgery and took 4 months to decide against microfracture surgery due to several factors … I told the doc I felt I was not a candidate for MF due to the intense therapy protocol and that I was not willing to give up that amount of time out of my life (reading is was a 6 month therapy period), and also needed to be able to take care of my 80 year old mom. Although microfracture is often the first surgical choice for small, full thickness articular cartilage injuries, articular cartilage lesion healing is a difficult process and these cases should be advanced cautiously through the rehabilitation process. It is a common procedure used to treat patients with full thickness damage to the articular cartilage that goes all the way down to the bone. I wish you the best of luck and hope this helps (and that I’m not too old). This is normally after 2-4 hours after surgery. Unfortunately, that’s not happening… the knee is too weak, the pain is too intense. Microfracture surgery is a relatively new procedure. The use of a continuous passive motion device (CPM) as a tool to assist nourishing the surrounding articular cartilage is commonly advocated.4,8,9,11-13 In the only trial investigating the use of CPM after microfracture, there was no difference in the amount of improvement, as measured by Lysholm outcome scores, between those patients who used a CPM and maintained non-weight bearing (NWB) status for the first six weeks and those patients who were allowed to bear weight as tolerated and didn’t use a CPM device.14 In our practice, a CPM is not routinely ordered for patient use at home. My IT band and hamstring on the bad leg are both really tight. Your doctor will explain the location of your lesion so that you know which of the following programs to follow. I just didn’t expect this feeling. Footwear Design & Smart Data, What’s Ahead? Going the through the movements of walking while crutching, just touching the ground a little bit. Hi all im a 52 year old man living in New Zealand. In summary, microfracture and the rehabilitation following this surgical procedure remain relatively new. I have learned through my experience and research, that the idea behind the microfracture is to increase blood flow to the cartilage and to cause scar tissue to form in the areas where the cartilage has been damaged. Mine is directly in the middle, in the “grove” for the knee cap.Im ok to bear weight as tolerated.And Im tolerating a bit!! The athlete must develop adequate strength and neuromuscular control to contend with joint stresses. Dr says to do exercises but unable to fold knee, cannot put full weighbearing on leg, knee area still swollen. The last consultant I met didn’t seem to know a thing when I asked him what exercises I could do (after 6 weeks) so explained to him what the Steadman protocol was as I’d read as much on the web. Damage to the cartilage of the knee can be very challenging to treat due to the very limited capacity for articular cartilage to heal on its own. I’m told 4th hand, that the surgeon found a “massive” meniscus tear and grade 4 arthritis on investigation and decided to perform MFR – which has effectively ended my life for 2 months as I’m told by one of the 4 consultants I’ve seen to date (still not seen the person who performed the surgery) that I have to stay on crutches and be non-weight bearing for two months! Emphasis on the important to acquire Range of Motion then moderate into weightbearing. My 1st arthro and 1st reconstructive were awful—the dr misplaced the graft by a quarter of an inch! Has anyone out there had this procedure, need feedback please. Luckily I had crutches in my attic. I honestly think I didnt even need surgery. Which is it? Table 1 outlines this jumping progression. I have not worked a day since surgery. Microfracture Knee Surgery Recovery. Prins J, Cutner D. Aquatic therapy in the rehabilitation of athletic injuries. and possibly some arthritis. Most of the posts and other sites i have read seem to be of a negative nature..my fingers are firmly crossed that ill repair quickly and be back at work soon… If you do not let the blood clot do it’s thing and regrow cartilage, the contact will be directly on the bone. Someone will need to pick you up. As a solution to my knee problems I had microfracture Nov 2011 my recovery was good for a while , Feb , and March I had been able to get back in to spinning, and was progressing back to my 20 k. 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