Recovery time after chondroplasty

[Art S.]

Six plus weeks ago, I had arthoscopic knee surgery and a chondroplasty procedure. After my six week checkup this week, my knee still had considerable pain in it and I am still unable to walk without crutches. What expectation should I have for a recovery time after which I should be able to walk relatively pain free? I do understand that a chondroplasty does not guaranty that cartilage like material will form. Am I necessarily looking at injections of some type to stave off knee replacement surgery? The doctor put me on "partial weight bearing" status for two more weeks. What is anybody's experience here? My meniscus cartilage was worn out on the inside before surgery. Did the chondroplasty get you to "pain free" for a while?



Thanks for any input you may have.



Art

[star queen]

Recovery time for this surgery is highly individual.  Depending on the complications of the surgery, the state the knee was in at the time of the surgery, your overall healh, other conditions (like diabetes, HTN, etc.), age, and level of activity all contribute to healing time.  The "rule of thumb" for recovery is 1-3 months from surgery to "on the feet", but I have known people who are up and walking in a week and some that are still having problems after a year. It is important that you do your exercises and physical therapy and don't procrastinate with them.  I know it hurts to move around and do the exercises, but with movement and exercise the pain and range of motion should get better.  The more you sit around and the less you move along with poor compliance, the longer the recovery time. Remember if any one exercise is really painful and you don't want to do that one, ask the therapist to recommend an alternate exercise that won't be so painful. Since your meniscus is pretty much gone, you are walking bone on bone, which can wear down the joint and cause pain, swelling, inflammation, a shortened leg (resulting in hip and back pain)and other problems. It is probable that if this surgery fails, your ortho will recommend a total knee replacement.  There is a "new" knee out there that is placed orthoscopically and gives the client more range of motion.  I am not sure of the name, but ask your doc about it when the time comes. Recovery is much shorter than full surgery with fewer complications.  Good luck

[billyrox]

Your response on chondroplasty was very helpful. My situation is very similar, the thing is though is was able to walk the sunday morning after my friday surgery and felt great until Thursday morning. I continued walking without krutches until Friday morning (this is the first week mind you)but the sorness, while not at all excruciating, was still a concern and I contacted my surgeon's office, at which time they expressed that I still needed to be on krutches at 25% weight bearing. The next week(2) I used the krutches all the time faithfully participating with my pt routine but learned at the end of the week exactly what 25% weight bearing is that's 40 lbs per step On my bad knee. I certainly am able to walk without krutches and wonder how much damage may have been caused by not using them initially maybe knocking off the scab on the chondroplasty. I still have pain and entering week three donot feel much inprovement.

[JainMD]

Hi,
How are you feeling?
What expectation should I have for a recovery time after which I should be able to walk relatively pain free?
+ The recovery is highly individualistic and depends on nutritional status, joint mobility and other accompanied symptoms or disease state.
Although chondroplasty may stimulate the area to re-cover itself with new cartilage, the problem is that the new surface is not true hyaline or joint cartilage, but a rather inferior version called ‘fibro-cartilage’.
You can have pain free period for a while but you need to be constantly evolving how your joint doing is.
If you continue to be in pain then you can be trying other procedure like OATS.
Keep me informed if you have any queries.
Bye.

[jlv1103]

I just had a chondroplasty done 1 1/2 weeks ago.  I never did use my crutches, and am able to walk relatively pain-free, providing I'm not walking on uneven ground or stairs.  I rode my horse (bareback, at a walk & trot only) 2 days after surgery.  I was told to not put a load on the knee in the bent position, so no jumping my horse for a few more weeks.  Today is the first day that I've been able to bend my knee to almost full range-of-motion, and straighten it after sitting with minimal pain.  I'm happy with the results, but have to admit I was surprised at how sore I was for the first 2-3 days.  Hang in there and don't baby it.  Like I tell my kids...."it's a long way from my heart"!

[JainMD]

Hi,
If you take example of jlv103, the recovery appears to be fast and also he has made surgery done look so simple.
I think you need to pep up yourself and go ahead with surgery.
The earlier the surgery, faster would be the recovery and sooner would you be able to mobilize yourself.
Keep me informed if you have any queries.
Bye.

[Swanny5]

I had chondroplasty surgery on February 15th and though after being on crutches for two weeks, I still had a dulling pain under my knee cap and resorted to using a cane for a couple of weeks. as of today,I can walk with a little bit of pain..but my real concern is a pain I get once in awhile when I go to walk around an object, like a table, where my leg turns to the right? It doesn't hurt when I walk straight?

My physical thereapist said it cpould be the muscle isn't strong enough yet on the inside......can anyone shed some light on this

I hope this is what it is, and I don't need to have an additional surgery!

Thanks