knee surgery: Full/Partial knee replacenment or Osteotomy?

tomahawke

Hi.
I'm a 50 year old male with an arithritic left knee. I'm generally fit and healthy and ligaments are in good condition. However I'm in pain which is bearable but chronic. My consultant is reluctant to direct me on what to do because I'm not walking into to him demanding a replacement. My dilema is: should I go for a knee replacement sooner rather than later? I would like to be more active now (cycling is the only thing I can do with minimal pain) and am thinking should I go ahead and get it done now rather than putting up with "bearable" pain for years and then getting it done by which time I may be fit for nothing. Would be interested to hear from anybody in my age group who has had a knee replacement. I also may be a candidate for a partial knee replacement or something called a osteotomy which is not a replacement but more of a realignment of the knee to shift the weight away from the area of pain and only applies to people with pain on one side of the knee. Again, would appreciate any views on these procedures particularly from people in my age group who have had them.

thanks

Scuba Ste

Well your consultant would be the best person to advise you but I've a feeling he is reluctant because at your age you would probably need another knee replacement in 10-15 years and as far as I know it's a more complicated surgery second time around.

My father had both knees replaced in the last year but he was in a lot of pain the past few years and was adamant that he wanted surgery. At that point the pain was fairly unbearable to the point that walking for even a few minutes was too much, even on a lot of pain killers. He's 53 so a similar age. Like yourself he put up with the pain as long as it was bearable but then reached a point where it was too painful and went for surgery.

Is rehab or strength exercises out of the question? My father has a physically demanding job but is not active otherwise. By the time he went to address the problem I don't think rehab would have helped him.

Hope that's useful.

Barry.Oglesby

There may be still some chance to not have surgery, or at least delay surgery for another while. Both of these would obviously be wins.

I'm PMing you the number of someone who I recommend to guide you down the rehab path should that be the way you'd like to go. Personally I think avoiding the replacement surgery until it is 100% absolutely necessary is the way to go.

tomahawke

thanks scuba. I think it will end up being a balance. Pain is tolerable at the moment and rehab may help to prolong that. But, I certainly would rather not go through a prolonged period of unbearable pain.