A Cadaver meniscus.. why?HOW?what?

[BECKZ_oo7]

I dont have any meniscus left in my left leg... i'm planning on a cadaver meniscus transplant.. i wanted to know all the pro's and con's (i hope i spelled it right)... PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE ANY INFORMATION ON THE TOPIC...

cheers

[mmrocker13]

Hi Beck...

Literature on the subject is varied, but just a rough summary... Success depends on a LOT of factors, including whether your issue is just the transplant or whether you have concomitant procedures, what type of allograft you have, what your alignment is, what your activity level is, even what you define as "success".

That being said...Medial transplants have a higher failure rate than lateral. Average survival rate varies, but 10 years is getting up there.

For example, one ten year follow up study (n=22) showed 25% of medial allografts and 50% of lateral allografts failed. The combined failure rate was 35%. 85% of those patients underwent subsequent procedures, 5 had total resection; 2 required partial allograft resection; 1 had a repair. (Hommen JP, Applegate GR, Del Pizzo W.)

In another study (n=100), average failure rate (combined) was around 20%; average lifespan was about 10 years. (forgot to grab a citiation)

Another (van Arkel ER, de Boer HH.; n=57) had cumulative survival rates of the lateral and medial allografts as 76% and 50%, respectively.

There's a lot of literature out there, but basically...it depends on what yoru criteria for success are. If all you want is pain reduction for a decade or two, your odds are not bad. If you want it to hold up through competitive, high impact athletics, and not to develop any further cartilage issues...welll, that's a tougher call, and there's a lot less research on it.

[BECKZ_oo7]

Iz BLOOD group an issue... i mean is it important to for your cadaver to have the same blood group as u've got... e.g if i've got a "b +ive" blood group, then should the cadaver also have a "b +ive" blood group...

i'd like to know if there are any other pre-requisites for a meniscus cadaver transplantat...     

[mkupris]

Hey. I had a meniscus transplant on my right knee--medial-- about four years ago, so I thought I'd share with you.

I completely ruined my meniscus playing volleyball in March of 2007 when I was 13. They couldn't fix it so they just removed it. After three months of therapy, I returned to playing with a brace at my high school. After two weeks of daily practice my knee was so sore that I couldn't play anymore. My mother is a physical therapist, so she researched a bunch and came across the meniscus transplant. By September of '07, we went to see Dr. Brian Cole at Rush Hospital in Chicago.

He told me I was a good candidate for the surgery and that now I just had to wait for a meniscus part to become available. There aren't any real pre-reqs for this surgery. All you have to do is get a bunch of ordered MRI's and X-Rays that your doctor will order for sizing purposes. And if you are on cortizone shots like I was, they have you stop them three months in advance. The hardest part is just getting insurance to approve and "experimental" surgery.

I ended up having the surgery in Jan of '08 (14 years old). The surgery is a killer. I have never been in so much pain. Mine went pretty smoothly as far as the opperation went. The first two-three weeks are really hard because you're in constant pain and can't move but after you get through that you don't really remember it...(I just remember it hurting really bad and I couldn't move.) Therapy is rough too, but keep in mind the fact that you'll recover faster is you cooperate. I had to have two additional surgerys to remove scar issure since it was a lot of trauma, but those didn't hurt at all, and you'll walk that day. :p

Overall the surgery is worth it! My first two years were rough, but I don't regret doing it at all. Now I'm back to doing whatever I want, I occasionally have an ache or a pain but Its 100000000000 times better than it was.

[BECKZ_oo7]

thanks mkupris.. that ment alot to me...

[mkupris]

You are welcome! Hopefully it helped! just let me know if you have any more questions and I will answer them if I can.

[BECKZ_oo7]

hey, thnx... actually i do need some help... i got plenty of questions on it.. i mailed u.. i'd be really obliged if u could help... thanks again..
Regards,
Bilal

[keithap]

Had it in 2006, didn't work.  No relief and ended up having more cartilage problems.  I hear for some it helped them get back to normal but it just didn't work for me.  I was 29 when i had it done and was extremely active.  The rehab is very demanding and it was one of the toughest recoveries i had, but again it just didn't work out.  Best of luck with whatever you decide