KNEE ARTHRITIS - Changing the forces through the joint :
High Tibial Osteotomy Patients - - Posted by Jules122 (Jules122), 26 January 2003
Hi Need to speak to post surgical high tibial osteotomy patients under age 50. need rehab info and recovery time!
Posted by Carolyne (Carolyne), 27 January 2003
Feel free to ask what you like. My husband had his operation (bone re-alignment and internal plates and screws) on Dec 16th 2002
Carolyne
Posted by amazonia (amazonia), 31 January 2003
I sent you a message, but in case you don't read it, I'll also post here. I'm 39 yr old female, and had a high tibial osteotomy on Dec. 5th '02, so am now 8 weeks post surgery. I had the osteotomy to realign my tibia prior to having PCL and PLC reconstruction coming up in March, so not for the 'usual' reasons.
I've been at 50% weight bearing with crutches for the past few weeks, but am now progressing to using a cane instead of crutches. I went back to work a couple of weeks ago (desk job), and I'm back at the gym able to do the staitionary bike with low resistance, and also able to swim/ aquasize classes. I think things are progressing very well, and I really have little discomfort, although I do know if I've done too much as my leg gets tired. (probably more due to muscle atrophy and the ligaments that still need to be repaired though) The worst pain for me was my hip where the bone graft was taken from, but that only lasted for a few weeks, and is fine now.
Hope that helps, and feel free to ask anything else!
Posted by Jules122 (Jules122), 1 February 2003
Hi, Sounds like your surgery was a success. Mine was a little different as it was done to prevent a knee replacement. I have severe osteoarthritisand the doc had to do 3 procedures in 1. It has been 7 months and I am just now starting to ambulate almost without 1 crutch. I am swimming and have the recumbent bike. I also had 2 hip surgeries as a child and I am out of alignment with my pelvis. I am 42 and feel 70. but..I am trying!! Thanks
Posted by amazonia (amazonia), 1 February 2003
It sounds like you've had a long recovery, but the good thing is that you're continuing to plug away and get better, and hopefully see small improvements. I think yours is a more usual situation for having a HTO, but that you also have some other joint issues going on too. Keep at it, and as I've learned from reading other posts on here, if you're not happy with the results, seek out another opinion to find out what might be going on.
So far I've been fortunate with my recovery, but still have a major operation ahead of me with the reconstruction of my PLC (using hamstring graft), and PCL (using allograft). Hopefully having the HTO done will prevent having the PLC reconstruction fail, as my tibia was bowed out, and quite far back - which was just my natural bone structure. (lots of hyper extension in my knees, and several other joint injuries - ankle, elbow etc., although I don't think I quite have a joint hypermobility disorder)
Were you/ are you going to physio to help with strengthening your quads etc? Did you just have one knee done, or both? I know Carolyne's husband just had his first knee done, and will have his 2nd done within 2 months, so more of a similar situation to yours.
I often wonder what my knee situation is going to be like in another 10 years....as the knee I injured was actually my 'good' knee - my R knee is the one I'd always had problems with!
Although it's a long haul, and sometimes there doesn't seem to be any progress, keep as positive as you can, and faithful with your exercises, and be thankful for the little things when the big things are too frustrating!
Posted by zimjohn706 (zimjohn706), 19 June 2003
I am a 38 year old soldier. I had an opening wedge HTO to correct a severe misalignment caused by a damaged ACL some 15 years ago. The HTO was followed 3 months later with an ACL reconstruction.
Post op, I went straight on to the CPM, maybe overdid it as I was on it for 36 hours of the first 48 post op. I am a great believer in getting mobilised as soon as possible and while I am still on good pain relief, consequently the combination of morphine and CPM meant that I achieved a 90 degree bend in the knee within the first 20 hours post op. It works for me but many do not appear to tolerate morphine as well as I do.
However I do not seem to have had any problems with the PT. I was non-weight bearing for 8 long weeks, which made me really appreciate my long suffering wife, but I kept to the PT regime and did not try to push it at any stage.
Once I was weight bearing then I continued with mobilisation PT (with a knee brace) and again kept within the limits set by my PT, but was religous in ensuring that it was done. Lost the brace within 2 weeks of PT and the crutches a week later.
Had no major pain from the osteotomy (except immediately after the op), so consider myself lucky, but the Iliac Crest graft (from the hip) was not fun and made some of the exercises interesting. I still have a lot of numbness in the leg as there was some nerve damge, but the muscle tone is back and my gait and posture is much improved.
Updated Sat Nov 21 2009
