Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice. It’s been almost 1,5 years since my last surgery. They did an anatomical reconstruction of the posterolateral corner (LaPrade technique) using achilles tendon allograft, restoring LCL, PFL and popliteus tendon. My knee is now stable, so you could say the surgery was succesfull.
My problem is that I can’t bend my knee over 100 degrees. Every time I get near 100 degrees, I get incredibly sharp pains on the lateral side of my knee cap (in the region between knee cap and fibula) and you can see a sort of ‘bump’ bulging out. When I put weight on my leg, it’s even worse, then my maximal flexion is only 70 degrees. I can’t properly descend stairs or ride a bike. When I walk longer than 30 minutes, my knee gets really stiff and swollen.
We have tried everthing, absolutely everything in PT and I’ve had three cortisone injections, but they only helped briefly. OS now suggests a MUA, but I’m a bit hesitant about that. I’m afraid it might make things worse, and have the feeling it might be better to remove the scar tissue, instead of breaking it up aggressively.
I have had four surgeries up to now, and my knee reacted quite heavily after every surgery. So my OS is afraid to do another surgery. But then: my surgeon is an expert in (complex) ligament reconstruction, and not in arthofibrosis.
Anyone have any ideas or advice what to do? I would love to hear from you.
Thanks!
Karien
FYI: my surgeries up to now:
5/2011 ACL-r hamstring
11/2011 Scope to clean out scar tissue and part of retorn ACL
9/2012 PLC-r (LaPrade, achilles tendon allograft)
10/2012 Surgery tot put back tendon that slipped out of upper femoral bone tunnel
