Jane Brody: What I Wish I'd Known About My Knees

[JimT]

Long-time New York Times health columnist (who has had both knees replaced) with a short piece that appeared in the NYT on July 3.

https://nyti.ms/2tDqfD0
https://nyti.ms/2tDqfD0
"Serious questions are now being raised about the benefits of the arthroscopic procedures that millions of people endure in hopes of delaying, if not avoiding, total knee replacements."

 

[Jaycey]

Interesting article - thanks for the link.

 

[Pheebs52]

I read the article and enjoyed (?) it to a point, having had the useless, arthroscopic procedure followed by the very necessary TKR. I found the comments even more interesting, but that's not unusual. I'd say the comments on the NYT are what keeps me coming back. They oil the hinges of a now, somewhat vintage open mind. Thanks for bringing the article here!

 

[Josephine]

It rather depends upon the reason for the scoping. If the surgeon likes to do it for diagnostic purposes, that's okay. But in my experience, and especially if there is a torn cartilage to be dealt with, the temptation to 'clean everything up' is very strong but - and this is a BIG but - if he gets out his Dremmel tool, it's like he will simply end up advancing the arthritic damage in the joint with the inevitable consequences of having more pain and disability.

Hyaluronic and cortisone shots are little more than Bandaids and only temporary so equally pointless.

Other than that, she said it all!

 

[Polkadot]

Thanks for sharing this article, Josephine! I too read some of the comments, and they were interesting. I'd like to highlight the point that while people's stories, or "anecdotal evidence," can be interesting, as the comments show, they can often contradict each other. Jane Brody's piece cited a scholarly study that adds understanding to this important issue. I especially appreciate being directed to that.

My OS told me that recent research suggests that an arthroscopic repair of a shredded meniscus when the knee is basically "bone on bone" would not do the trick. He said that he could do the arthroscopic repair, but that he predicted "I would not be happy with it." I'm glad that I could see the research and confirm that I probably made the correct decision to do the TKR rather than the stop=gap measure.

 

[PolarBear60]

Since I was active duty military when both my meniscii shredded, I wanted the surgeries to document the history of knee problems, which had been apparent since I was 25. I had the surgeries when I was 45 and 46, and knees replaced at 54 and 55, gaining me ten years of increasing pain and immobility between the arthroscopies and replacement. X-ray evidence supported replacement would have been warranted when I was in my mid-40s, but that simply wasn't done then. I'm thankful for the people who need it to to be able to get this procedure when they are younger.