Re: HTO v's TKR
Pieman,
Remember that doctors are not gods. They are also not the Pope and thus are not infallible!!! Remember too that some graduated at the top of the class and some at the bottom.
Plenty of docs get stuck in a rut and don't progress much beyond their initial training. so, if HTO was big in 1970 and that is when the doc was trained . . . .
I regard myself as part of my health care team. I spend a lot of time researching my illnesses and different types of treatment. I want the surgeon to work with me--not pontificate from on high.
Lance Armstrong is a case in point. He went to one group of docs for his testicular cancer and they recommended a treatment that would have destroyed his lung function. He then visited a different group and they recommended a treatment plan that did not include the drug that would have destroyed his lungs. As we all know, the second plan was quite successful. However, if Lance had not done his own homework and explored more than one team of docs---he would no longer be a professional cyclist.
I have a friend who had a HTO and she very much regrets that decision. It was horribly painful for months!! And, now that she needs a tkr, it is a much more difficult surgery working around the fracture, the missing bone and all that hardware. I think you need to research that procedure a lot more.
If I had a surgeon who offered me only one solution---HTO---I would run for the door. I do not want someone so rigid and out of date. I want someone who is open to my own thinking and who would offer me more than one solution to the problem of arthritic knees. Good luck with your quest!! Kelly