Micro Fracture

[Raggs]

Hi ,
I am 4 days post- op of a ( r ) knee micro fracture .. my doctor suggested this procedure after my 3rd knee surgery . I am concerned if all the swelling and being unable to bend my knee is considered to be normal at this point . My doctor suggested he could drain my knee but I decided to pass on this procedure at least for a few more days ... If anyone has had this procedure please let me know if it has worked for you ... and is there anything I can do to help speed along the healing process .... Thanks ....

[Helen_uk]

Yes I have had this done and the swelling does take some weeks to go down and the pain is because albeit small they have broken some bone and your body works hard to heal it and this itself can cause pain.
By six weeks I was in the clear and feeling much better but I was imobilised in a cast for 3 weeks to help the healing.
Once the swelling goes down probably over the next fortnight the bend will gradually come so dont push it , rest it and ice it and it will happen.
Hope this has been of some help.
H xxx

[JorJor]

I have had Micro-Fracture twice. Once in 93 and then again in 94. It is a tough surgery, no doubt. Hang in there, it will get better each day.
The second one for me was the most extreme. NO weight bearing for 6 weeks and was stuck in a CPM for 10 hours each day for the first couple of weeks. Yuck. Hate CPMs.  Even though I didn't like the CPM, I am glad he made me do it. Keeping my knee in motion helped a lot. (and lots of ice packs and pain meds)
This surgery did help but I now have Synvisc  or Halogen injections very 6 months to deal with the pain. For now, I will just continue this course until I can't take it any more. I am not ready for the next step.

I truly wish you the best and understand what you are going through. Take it day by day.

[mj/usa]

Hi!
I didn't have the microfracture, but oats and am now 3 weeks post-op.  My OS throught that for my the oats was preferable to the  mircofracture because of the location of the defect.  Anyway, the swellling is now almost gone, you can see that I have a kneecap (almost).  I have almost no pain, and am using a CPM for 3-4 hrs/day.  
So yes, I would say that after this type of surgery the swelling is normal. I used lots of ice the first 10 days or so and that helped a lot too.  As for stiff knee, yes, it is still rather stiff although I can get to 90 deg with the cpm.
Hang in there, it will get better.
MJ

[iain]

Silly question on my part but whats a micro fracture? Whilst lurking the posts (bad habit I know) I saw Ragg's message and seeing that I managed to tranversely fracture my kneecap, and destroyed the articular cartilage as a result, I am interested on all 'fracture type' threads but have never heard of a micro fracture

Can anyone enlighten me.

Thanks

[mj/usa]

Hi!
Microfracture is a technique used to stimulate regrowh of articular cartilage, in cases where the defect is all the way to the bone.  In this procedure the underlying bone is  microfractured using a small type of instrument.  The bleeding that occurs is supposed to stimulate the growth of new fibrocartilage to cover the original defect

[Linda]

Hi,

I was told that the micro Fracture only works on small defects, so you might want to find out how large your defect is.

Good luck!
Linda