Plica removal and recovery

[melissasknee]

I wanted to hear your stories if you have had your plica removed.

How long was your recovery time? How was your pain level?  Did you have complications?

I am 32 years olf, healthy female and I am not healing from my plica removal after 6 weeks, and wanted to see if this was the norm.

Thank you!

[daedalus]

Melissa,

I am sorry to hear about your problem.  I have not had my plica removed yet, but my OS has recommended removing it if he does a scope.  He's a very conservative doc who doesn't seem like he would do anything unnecessary.  He told me there is no risk in removing the plica since it is not a necessary part of the knee. 

I find it very hard to believe that removing my plica could not possibly result in complications, so I have delayed booking the surgery.  Your story just confirms my hesitation. 

Have you spoken with your OS about the recovery time?  What was your initial diagnosis?  Was it just an inflamed plica, or was something else wrong?

 

[Hope83]

Hello Melissa-

I had a pretty bad MCL tear and for some reason it resulted in the scarring of my medial plica as well. I had a scar resection surgery for arthrofibrosis and my OS said my medial plica looked like bubblegum and he removed most of it. I wasn't sure if it was my plica hurting before surgery or my MCL, or both. I do know that after the surgery, the part that hurt the worst was the medial plica! I was really focusing on extension after that surgery because gaining ROM was the entire purpose, BUT i was so distracted as far as any other pain goes because the plica was SOOOO sensitive after being in extension and then going to flexion. And also during Straight Leg Raises....and quad sets. For the most part, I didn't have resting pain, it was activity related.

I would say that it actually took several months for that to heal and stop being inflammed. After the surgery, a couple of months later, I received a cortisone shot into the plica area because I was still having a issues. This helped immensely and I think things just need to cool down a little bit more.  Funny how one of the only useless things in the knee can cause so much pain.

I would recommend very frequent icing, very frequent anti-inflammatories, biking or something to keep the joint moving, and if you're not opposed, or your OS isn't opposed, perhaps an anti-inflammatory injected into the plical area (not the joint itself) would help. Good luck!