Knee arthroscopy info please

[aussie]

My 30 something son is going to have either one or both knees 'scoped' soon.

I would appreciate any info I can pass onto him regarding, pain after, walking aids, icing, recovery period.

Anything I can pass on would be great.

Thanks

Chris

 

[Jamie]

Aussie, I'm sure you will hear from many folks here who have had scopes. My husband has had three and his recovery was quite easy for all of them. I had one also to repair torn meniscus, but mine was not so good. For some reason I got a lot of swelling and actually could not walk for a while. I was not smart and did not contact my doctor right away thinking it would get better soon like my husband did. Had I to do it over again, I should have called the doctor's office the minute I felt I was having excessive pain. The whole point of this type of surgery is that you should have relatively minimal pain, in my opinion. I would recommend the same icing methods as we use with knee replacements. I think I definitely under iced and elevated with mine.

 

[Josephine]

My scope was painful first few days but not excessively. Did manage to return to work after two weeks though my surgeon had said six! Didn't have the sick leave available for that though! So to help me I used my trusty TENS machine! Would strap those electrodes on and secure the leads with micropore, and more micropore to secure them up the leg until they were out the top of the trousers of my scrubs. Would never have been able to manage the first week without it - didn't want to take pain pills, y'see, as I'd have other peoples well being in my charge!

Certainly never had any swelling, need to ice or anything else.

 

[Rowdy66]

Welcome to the forum Aussie, glad you found it. I had both of my knees scoped before my BTKR (Bilateral Total Knee Replacement) and they were not bad at all. A bit sore a couple of days afterward but that soon resolved itself. Does your son just need the scopes or is he looking at having knee replacement surgeries at some time in the future. The OS who did my scopes was different than the OS who did my knee replacement surgeries. He did the scopes to clean my knees up and to guage the amount of damage I had in my knees. I am 67, considerably older than you son and still had no problem with recovery. After the scope your knee has a large wrap and there is a drain that is removed the day after surgery, at least that is when my drains were removed. That was not painful at all and took less than ten seconds although they did redress the knee with a bit of guaze and an ace bandage. Then from there I went right into physical therapy. It was actually the head of PT who removed my drains but she only removed them for the OS that did my scopes and it was not generally their practice. Then I had PT three times a week for several weeks. I had my knees done a couple of knees apart so my physical therapy sort of ran into each other and overlapped. PT was riding the stationary bike and doing lifting and stretching exercises. After the exercises they would put ice packs on my elevated knees and used some kind of electrical stimulation that really helped. I had very little swelling or discoloration and the first one actually helped me with the pain in my knee for a few weeks. Tell you son good luck, I hope he joins you in posting here as it is an excellent site to get information and have questions answered as well as get some often much needed uncouragement. Rowdy

 

[JudyS]

I had a knee scope about 5 weeks ago. I had a lot of scar tissure cleaned out as well as microfracture surgery to regrow cartilage. I did need to ice a lot after for pain, overdid it and actually burned my skin!! I thought it was bruising from the surgery.
The pain was really mild, due to the microfracture, I have had these weeks of no weight bearing so it really depends on what the surgeon actually does. I am just allowed to start walking today, but not much. In about 1 month I will start strength training on the quad muscles.
Good luck to your son
Judy

 

[edk]

The impact of scoping itself is pretty minor you can proably even limp out to the
car on day of surgery. The issue is really what did they do when they were in there.
If they just clean up the ends of some miniscus thats one thing, if you have microfractures its another.

 

[aussie]

Thanks everyone,

This will all be helpful.

Regards

Chris