Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy

[DawnettC]

I have had 13 surgeries on my left knee including a patella implant, lateral release and several scopes.  My doctor just told me recently that the only way to fix my patella tracking problems is to do this procedure.  Has anybody had this done and if so what complications did you encounter and how long did it take you to fully recover?

[Chris-tea]

Hi DawnettC,

I had a TTT and MPFL graft when I was 14 (2008) my knee would constantly dislocate. It took me a long time to heel, I spent about 2 months on crutches and about 1 month in a splint. I had to do physio 3 x a day and saw my physio a couple times a week.

in 2011 I was still having trouble and it got worse and worse to the point when I could not work. I went to a different doctor, and he said he will have to re-do the TTT as my knee was still out of line. In my second surgery he found my MPFL graft had been done too tight and was causing internal bleeding. He fixed it up and did a clean up. I was on crutches for about two days. I then did a year of physio and in between did hydrotherapy for a couple months.

I think once you have a knee problem you will always have a knee problem.

The trick is to make sure you persist with physio and hyrotherapy really helped, make sure you get a good physio you like. Mine was hot so it was a bonus haha.

I am now just this week having pain in my knee again because I have started doing swimming 3 x a week.   

Good luck with your knee, keep doing your physio and build it up

[DawnettC]

Thanks Chris-tea for some insight into what it to come in the very near future.  The only problem I have is that my right knee will have to be done at some point as well because it is just like the left one.  I refuse to let them get to 13 surgeries on the right one so sometime after the left one heals I might as well get the right one done too.

Thanks