torn meniscus 2 years post injury.....

[dhoneyb49]

I had an bad fall on my left knee 27 months ago and have not been given treatment except meds for a posterior tear that is now to the point it locks and causes me to fall. The ortho ..6 months after a second opinion eval.. decides he wants to do Supartz injections........ surgery was scheduled in Nov 2007 and postponed and never rescheduled and now he wants to try this. I do not know enough about the supartz but do not see how they will repair or help a tear... any suggestions>> DJ

 

[Josephine]

SUPARTZ is simply a joint fluid therapy for treating OA knee pain by replacing depleted hyaluronan (also known as glucosamine) in the synovial fluid of the knees.broken link removed: https://www.supartz.com/healthcare/

I don't understand why he would think this a viable alternative for surgery to repair or trim the torn cartilage. You say you had a second opinion - does this mean you saw a different surgeon or that it was a second visit to him? If I were in your shoes I would see a totally new surgeon, preferably one that specialises in sports injuries.

 

[hollie9]

I had bad luck with my meniscis tear surgery (arthoroscopic). I had tears on both knees but my XRays didn't show any knee damage, only MRI did. After the meniscis surgery they looked terrible on XRay and all I could do was get a TKR. Whether this surgeon took out too much meniscis or not, I don't know. Do these meniscis surgeries ever work?

Perhaps your XRays are showing some knee damage, maybe some bone to bone that could benefit from Supartz? I wonder if you really have menisicis causing your knee locking or if it's from OA in your knee?

I know lots of people benefit from HLAs like Supartz. I had it done but my knees were too far gone and it didn't take. I agree that you need a second opinion and get on top of your diagnosis and try to understand your XRays.

I've read menisicis tear surgery is falling in popularity, there are some studies that they don't help enough and insurance companies are not covering them.

Hollie

 

[Jamie]

I had meniscis surgery and it actually made my arthritis worse. Severe swelling afterwards caused me extreme pain and something (I feel like it was the swelling) caused all my remaining cartilige to die and I got avascular necrosis (dead bone) in my knee. It was the pits!!! And all that happened within 2 months after the surgery. I would definitely NEVER have that type of surgery again. Basically all the doctor could say was....wow, I'm surprised THAT happened. I got a new doctor.

 

[hollie9]

AVN, that's tough. Yeah, I wish I'd never had that surgery either.
Hollie

 

[Jamie]

AVN, that's tough. Yeah, I wish I'd never had that surgery either.
Hollie

Yep, it WAS tough. I was in denial for a while. Then I read enough on the internet to worry that all my joints were gonna crumble. Once I finally got to another doctor who told me I wouldn't be in a wheelchair, I began to come back to reality. I talked with yet another doctor (who was with the practice that finally did my surgery) that convinced me everything would be fine and the worst that would happen would be a TKR. Actually, that turned out to be a very good thing because my knee is more stable than it has been in many years. So even though I wasn't having constant pain before the arthroscopic surgery, I was having problems in there. I'm glad to have it done....so in a warped way, the rotten surgery got me stronger faster....positive spin!