More Medical - Knee Surgery

[AJMD429]

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While one 'study' doesn't conclusively prove much, this is interesting - many arthroscopic knee surgeries may not be worth doing.

Of course N psychopathic obsession to get every patient off opioids just because a few patients shouldn't take them, I guess it's excusable to harm patients under the guise of the 'opioid crisis'... (none of our opioid-restricting policies have reduces abuse and abuse-related deaths, any more than gun-restricting policies have reduced gun accidents or gun-related crime).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/ ... r-AA27NjUh

For those with institutional access, here's the study - https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2516079

[piller]

The opioid crisis might be real, but some people are in pain.

[Griff]

As someone who has been walking around for 46 years without a meniscus in my right knee, I can certainly attest that it's not vestigial tissue of little use. My right leg started out an eighth of an inch shorter than my left after the surgery to remove it. It's closer to 3/8" now. Wish they had cadaver meniscus' back then. Never even presented as an option when mine was removed. When I first learned of their use, I was over 40, more than 10 years w/o mine and no doctor of my acquaintance would would even consider putting one in. Now my only choice is whether I want a knee replacement done via medi-care or thru the VA.

[Ysabel Kid]

Had a pair of spinal injections early this afternoon and I'm resting now in my recliner. Unfortunately, it appears that in addition to my back issues (three herniated discs), both of my hip will need to be replaced, sooner rather than later. I'm only 62 - it's not the years, its the mileage. Hard mileage.

But I understand that modern hip replacement is one of the easiest orthopedic surgeries to recover from. That is certainly good news.

I understand unrelenting pain. I understand those who need relief. It is no fun.

[GunnyMack]

My knees are done, runs in the family. Dad's were shot but he never had them done. Mom had both replaced, my sister has 1 knee and a hip done.
My only relief is I wear knee braces daily, when I dont wear them everything from my knees down aches and my legs bow out. I really gotta find insurance that I can afford !
I found a Frankensense cream that relieves the ache but its only temporary.

[.45colt]

I can't fathom what you face everyday Gunny . six weeks ago the plumbing went to hell under the kitchen sink. No big deal I'll fix it myself like I always did. but now I'm past 70. I strained both knees badly getting up and down under the sink many times and have been struggling just to walk every day . easily as bad as when My back goes out. slowly my knees are getting better but I am getting nothing done around here.

[marlinman93]

I wrecked my right knee on a dirt bike and instead of tearing my ACL tendon the ACL uprooted a chunk of bone the size of a .50 cent piece! My knee surgeon told me in thousands of ACL tears he'd repaired he'd never seen this before. That was a full 9" incision to repair, and about 5 years later I had arthroscopic surgery to clean up debris left from the 1st surgery. Then two more times after that for issues, and the last time the surgeon told me I had no ACL at all anymore, and wanted to cut a piece of tendon from the back of my leg to build a new one! I asked what the recovery time was, and he told me a year to 18 months. I opted to just clean it up again as I was still working and told him we couldn't survive 12-18 months without pay. Besides I'd been using the knee for how many years not even knowing the ACL was gone, so why replace it?
That last surgery was 30 years ago, and I'm still walking. I'm sure a knee replacement is likely someday, but I'm close enough to the end I may not need it.