Tell me about knee arthroscopy

[minkydog]

I'm an RN of considerable experience *36yrs* but my specialty is pediatrics, not adult orthopedics. My one and only personal experience with knee surgery took place when I was in nursing school--I was scrubbed in to observe a knee replacement. I was fine with the initial cuts but once they started moving things around in there, I was toast. I managed to get to the floor safely before I passed out and the staff just walked right over me.

I have been having a lot of trouble with my knees in the last 9 months. I have psoriatic arthritis in my hands, feet, and knees. The knees have gotten dramatically worse since Feb. An MRI showed mod-severe arthritis, torn menisci, baker's cyst, luxating patellas, and a large amt of fluid on the right knee. So far I have had 3 cortisone injections, 5 Supartz injections, and about 4 weeks of PT in an attempt to postpone the inevitable knee replacements.

I went back to the orthopedist/sports medicine specialist yesterday because nothing is working. Well, to be specific, nothing is working for the right knee. I am really limping on it and it's quite swollen all the time. I can no longer bend it enough to cross my legs and it wakes me up when I roll over at night. After reviewing everything, the ortho says he thinks I need to have arthroscopy so he can go in there, scope it out, clean up the debris, and suction out the fluid. He gave me another cortisone shot, which has helped some. I don't' expect it will last long, though.

The doctor tried to explain the procedure, but when he got to the part about cutting the torn mesicus out and trimming this & that, I felt faint and told him he wasn't helping. God, I'm a wimp! Sooo...I guess what I'm really asking is, without being graphic, can you tell me some of your experience? I work at a sit-down job, mostly from home so I expect to be back at work within just a few days.There is some suggestion that he will need to repair the patella which is chronically dislocated (patella tracking disorder.)How long were you non-weight-bearing or on crutches? How long before you could drive yourself? How long before you could go grocery shopping or to the mall? Did the arthroscopy improve your pain and stiffness and swelling enough?

 

[EMAW_KSU]

I had my knee done 6 years ago. I went back to work the next day at my desk. My wife picked me up after surgery at 4 PM and we went to a basketball game that evening. I drove home from the basketball game.

 

[eliza61]

Hey MD, I had ortho scopic surgery on both knees. Absolutely the best thing I've done health wise. I'm 55 and have osteoporosis along with a touch of Arthritis. My left knee I had done in 08. My biggest complaint was in took me about 4 months to completely heal. My right knee I had done in 11. The first days were rough not because of tons of pain but because my knee was swollen I could not get comfortable. My knees are 1000 times better, some times they will get stiff if I'm in a car or plane for hours but other than that, no issues.

 

[minkydog]

Hey MD, I had ortho scopic surgery on both knees. Absolutely the best thing I've done health wise. I'm 55 and have osteoporosis along with a touch of Arthritis. My left knee I had done in 08. My biggest complaint was in took me about 4 months to completely heal. My right knee I had done in 11. The first days were rough not because of tons of pain but because my knee was swollen I could not get comfortable. My knees are 1000 times better, some times they will get stiff if I'm in a car or plane for hours but other than that, no issues.

That sounds great! If I can just keep these knees going a few more years and put off total knee replacements I will be a happy girl.

 

[skunkvette]

I had right meniscus done in 2002, left one done in 2012.

Both were total shredded and had to be removed.

Arthritis in both knees was cleaned up during the procedures.

Out patient, general anesthesia back to work (office) after one day of rest after surgery.

Felt MUCH better after each procedure.

Long term I have just started with synthetic fluid injection to help when the knees get cranky, just once a year so far.

Good luck.

 

[asta]

I have been dealing with bad knees for over 10 years during which I had two arthroscopies and finally a total knee replacement 9 months ago. The arthroscopies are nothing compared to the total knee surgery you watched. The incisions are tiny compared to the replacement. That means that a lot less healing time because not that many muscles are cut. I was walking without a crutch by the second day after arthroscopy. Not much but enough to get around the house. I think it did take me almost a full year to fully feel like the muscles around the knee had healed. The bad news is that I got very little relief from the surgery to just clean up arthritis fuzziness in the meniscus. My second surgery was to repair a badly torn meniscus and i got a tremendous amount of pain relief from that surgery. The pain from the torn meniscus is a different type of pain than that from osteoarthritis where the cartliage is wearing away. I couldn't find any relief from that until things got so bad that I had to get the total replacement.

Good luck. It is so hard to cope with knee pain.

 

[LBAK]

I'm 4 days post op right now and I'm guessing it was the right thing to do. Torn meniscus fixed, arthritis (osteo and RA) "cleaned up", something or other shaved and a cyst removed. Relatively pain free surgery. Drove today for the first time although I was cleared yesterday for it. I was religious about icing it and there's very little swelling today. Looks like 5 stitches total with both incisions. Physical therapy starts next week when stitches come out. Doing leg lifts at home as per Dr.

DH drove me to supermarket on Saturday (had it Friday AM) and we went out to dinner. Sunday went to a friends house. Saturday I was a little tired and took a nap. I don't do great with general anesthesia. Back to regular routine and feel pretty good.

 

[eliza61]

That sounds great! If I can just keep these knees going a few more years and put off total knee replacements I will be a happy girl.

That's my game plan, my surgeon didn't even want to do the knee replacement at that stage. Now they also have partial knee replacements but I'm with you, trying to keep the "old grey mare" going as long as possible.

 

[sbtrfly74]

That was my 2nd OR experience in Nursing school too. Luckily I didnt see the initial cuts or I would have been on the floor also. Mostly it was on a tv screen and he had 3 pc. of equipment inside the knee cutting what looked like white feathers around the knee. Will say it was pretty cool.

This was the patients 2nd round of arthroscopy and just remember he was my PITA patient as I had him the next day of med-surg. His wife was a RN so of course he knew everything

Sorry thats all I can tell you but thanks for letting me reminisce.

 

[asta]

That was my 2nd OR experience in Nursing school too. Luckily I didnt see the initial cuts or I would have been on the floor also. Mostly it was on a tv screen and he had 3 pc. of equipment inside the knee cutting what looked like white feathers around the knee. Will say it was pretty cool.

This was the patients 2nd round of arthroscopy and just remember he was my PITA patient as I had him the next day of med-surg. His wife was a RN so of course he knew everything

Sorry thats all I can tell you but thanks for letting me reminisce.

Total knee replacement must be a very rough surgery. My physical therapists said they saw so much damage post surgery that they requested to view a surgery. In addition to the incision I had bruising on other parts of my leg. I am guessing that they had to hold my leg firmly.

 

[sbtrfly74]

Total knee replacement must be a very rough surgery. My physical therapists said they saw so much damage post surgery that they requested to view a surgery. In addition to the incision I had bruising on other parts of my leg. I am guessing that they had to hold my leg firmly.

His wasnt a total knee, they wouldnt let me watch one of those due to testy equipment and high stress in the OR. My patient I remember had MRSA and they took about a 500cc sample while under but the surgery was just to clean out the arthritis, dont remember why it was a 2nd surgery he was in his 40's.

The only experience Ive had with total knee is they had to do ROM as soon as possible which im sure is very painful.

 

[minnie mum]

OP, your description of your knee issues are almost identical to mine (except for the cyst). But mine have been ongoing for over 40 years. I'm at the point of knee replacement now due to the pain and stiffness impacting almost all of my daily activities.

I've had 2 open meniscectomies (one on each knee) in the 70's. 2 arthroscopies in the 80's (one on each knee) and 2 in the 90's. All of the scopes were to smooth out additional roughness and shredding of the remaining menici and articular cartilage due to progressing arthritis. I did get an improvement in the pain and stiffness after each procedure, but it didn't last (obviously). Recovery was quite quick and I was back on duty (surgical unit) within a couple of weeks. Icing, elevating, and being very conscientious with your knee exercises starting day of surgery is really important. Pain was negigible for me- a couple of days of Tylenol 3's was all I needed.

I also had surgery to correct chronic subluxation of my right patella. But this was quite a few years ago and was an open procedure, not endoscopic. It was extremely painful for the first 3 post-op days. Recovery was prolonged- 6-8 weeks partial weight bearing on crutches with a posterior splint. Physio was also required for a long time after the procedure and I ended with a permanent extention lag in my knee. But I'm sure they've come up with better approaches to this in the intervening years. I'd still recommend that you talk to your doctor about this, though, and get a fuller explanation from him about this.

Good luck, and I hope you're feeling a lot more mobile after the procedure(s).

 

[rwdavis2]

I'm dealing with many of the same issues and after 3 surgeries on the left knee, all the cartilage is gone. Before the last surgery the internist suggested I just get it replaced as he never recommends this surgery. Orthopedic surgeons are more than happy to suggest it. Statistics show that arthroscopy is essentially worthless.

The only reason I went with it was because I could not take 2 months off work at the time and I needed immediate relief from the shredded meniscus (looked like crab meat).

Although my knee is better than it was before surgery it's still slowly getting worse which will lead to eventual replacement.

My wife had her knee replaced is is very happy with the result.