viscosupplementation instead of knee surgery?

[Bongleur]

Seeing ads for this recently. Wondering if it can fix problems with the meniscus. Several years ago an orthopod told me that all they can do is remove it; there was no way to "glue it back together" or replace it with an artificial cushioning substance.


This injection lasts "6-12 months or longer" but then talks about rates for avoidance of "total knee replacement surgery" which is much more radical then the meniscus.

 

[folivier]

Had my right meniscus removed about 40 years ago, no other option back then. Scar tissue was causing the knee to lock up. Had lots of problems throughout the years but interestingly once I retired haven't had as much problems or pain.
A neighbor recently had a stem cell injection and is having good results.

 

[Bamaman]

Very seldom will knee replacement be the first medical procedure on that knee. Many will have had the .meniscus tears trimmed up previous!y. It is out that bad of.a surgery.

My wife had a knee replacement 1 year ago after being in a wheelchair. We're in Paris this week, and she is walking many miles per.day without any.pain whatsoever.

If the doctor says it's time for a replacement go for it. You will be glad you did. The only thing is.to find the best orthopedic surgeon available to do the procedure. In my wife's case, her surgeon does.3 knees each on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He is a knee machine, and as good as they come.

 

[OldShooter]

SGOTI is not a good source of medical information. At best you will get anecdotes. The plural of "anecdote" is not "data."

In our market those ads are usually run by chiropractors. From Wikipedia: "Daniel David Palmer or D.D. Palmer (March 7, 1845 – October 20, 1913) was the founder of chiropractic. He was an avid proponent of various forms of pseudoscientific alternative medicine such as magnetic healing." More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_David_Palmer

Find a real doctor you trust and ask there.

 

[Bongleur]

A neighbor recently had a stem cell injection and is having good results.

Into the damaged meniscus?

 

[Bongleur]

Well I called & they said it can sometimes help a damaged meniscus, or if the bone-on-bone after removal is giving problems. So need to figure out the "generic words" for this procedure to find out if its purely proprietary or how well-established this method is.

 

[Chuckanut]

I've had the lubricant shots and the cortisone. The cortisone helped the most at first, but now it does not do much. And, it's not sustainable over a long period of time since the cortisone degrades other parts of the knee joint. Not so good.

The lubricant shots do worked very well for me for several years, but eventually the wear and tear on the knee overwhelmed them. I certainly would try them before getting surgery. Especially if I was much under 60 and might face two TKRs in my life instead of one. Time will tell.

What really helped my knee the most over the 40 years that I have been bone on bone is riding a bike. A real bike or a stationary bike, it does not matter. My knee loves bikes and feels better afterward. It worked for years. Alas, even biking no longer works well enough these days.

 

[Blueskies123]

Had my right meniscus removed about 40 years ago, no other option back then. Scar tissue was causing the knee to lock up. Had lots of problems throughout the years but interestingly once I retired haven't had as much problems or pain.
A neighbor recently had a stem cell injection and is having good results.

Did you have a piece of your meniscus removed or did you have the entire meniscus removed? Seem impossible not to have had horrible side effects after 40 years if you had the entire meniscus removed.

 

[gerntz]

Did you have a piece of your meniscus removed or did you have the entire meniscus removed? Seem impossible not to have had horrible side effects after 40 years if you had the entire meniscus removed.

I had lateral, not medial, meniscus removed 42 years ago. Have infrequent minor pain & rare significant pain. Straightening knee is limited to about 95-98% these days, so have a quite minor limp that others notice, me hardly. Skiing has been limited for the last 5 years. Bumps are a killer. But net, in no rush for a TKR.

 

[aja8888]

Two years ago this month at age 74, I screwed up my knee doing something not so smart and tore both meniscus's. Knee Doc here in town (the best, I understand), cleaned them up and removed some arthritic material from the kneecap. I still have some pain, but I walk a minimum of 10,000 steps per day.

I also wear an elastic knee brace and I think that helps with the knee looseness. I don't believe you ever fully recover from a bad meniscus tear, especially if you are "old".

But hey, no new knee is currently in my future and I want to keep it that way.

 

[harllee]

DH has knee arthritis (bone on bone) and has been able to delay knee replacement for a number of years by getting Euflexa shots every 6 months. I, on the other hand, do not have arthritis and do not need knee replacement but tore my meniscus 2 years ago while dancing, terrible pain, could barely walk. I went to the ortho doc that DH uses and he diagnosed the torn meniscus. I asked him if the Eflexxa shots would help me and he said no, they would not help a torn meniscus. So I underwent a meniscectomy (day surgery), was walking pretty good a few days later and back to dancing in 2 weeks. Only problem I had was going down steps, I did some physical therapy for that and am now fine.

So to answer the OP's question, according to my ortho doctor the Euflexa type shots will not help a torn meniscus. If it is bad, get it fixed and get back to dancing.

 

[eytonxav]

I also wear an elastic knee brace and I think that helps with the knee looseness. I don't believe you ever fully recover from a bad meniscus tear, especially if you are "old".

Last year I tried pushing a weighted sled in the gym that was loaded with 45 lb plates, weighing about 630 lbs + weight of sled, stupid me. Anyway it screwed up my left knee and my knee cap actually felt loose for many months afterwards, although no pain. Then a couple of months ago I started to get significant knee pain when running bases in a softball game. Saw the ortho and he said you have wear on the backside of your kneecap. He prescribed 4 weeks of PT and surprisingly, my pain disappeared and the kneecap no longer feels loose. I hope it stays that way. That really scared my as I never had knee issues before, so I can certainly empathize with all of you that are going through knee problems.

 

[Bongleur]

a torn meniscus. So I underwent a meniscectomy (day surgery), was walking pretty good a few days later and back to dancing in 2 weeks. Only problem I had was going down steps, I did some physical therapy for that and am now fine.

So to answer the OP's question, according to my ortho doctor the Euflexa type shots will not help a torn meniscus. If it is bad, get it fixed and get back to dancing.

Must be a wide variation in how much gets removed. My medial was worn & torn so removed, & I had to stay off it completely for a few days, crutches for a while & a couple months of PT.