Ruptured patellar tendon + surgery - 43 years later

[stevendb]

Thought I would share my story on this forum. At age 14 I was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatters disease in my left knee, a growth related inflamation and bulging of the cartilage at the top of the shin bone. I was given a cortizone shot in the knee and put in a brace for several weaks. I played a good bit of basketball, and for the next three or four years would have some tendonitus and pain in the affected knee and tendon. Five years later, while playing basketball, I planted my left foot to cut right and I went right down on the court. The patellar tendon completely tore in half, and the kneecap recessed up above its normal resting place. I thought it had dislocated as it looked really bad under the skin. I was able to use my palm and push the knee cap back down, but it was painful and I was taken to the hospital by ambulance from the gym. At the hospital, they asked me to raise my foot with a bent knee and nothing happened. I couldn't. That will get your attention. A few days later I had surgery to repair the tendon. A small part of my kneecap had broken off with the tendon. The surgeon - Dr. Granowitz in Pittsburgh - asked me if I had ever had a cortizone shot in the knee, and he suspected that may have contributed. In the surgery, they sewed the kneecap back to the tendon as best they could. And they also immobilized my thigh muscle to keep stress off the tendon. To do this they ran a wire loop up through and above the knee cap and anchored this down below in a cast, so I couldn't contract the thigh muscle. Then they ran another loop wire through this loop and anchored this above the knee in the cast. So for about six weeks the kneecap was immobilized. Because I could not contract my thigh muscle, my left thigh atrophied terribly, and was very loose in the cast. This put a lot of stress on the points where the two wire sets entered my knee, and these became infected and really painful, and I had to be given strong antibiotics. Finally the day came to get the cast off. The plan was to use the upper wire loop to pull the bottom loop up and out the top of my knee once the wires were free from the cast. But the infection made this extremely painful to even touch the loose protuding wires. Well, with five orderlies and a pair of pliers they got the wires out. I didn't do a good job of rehabbing, but eventually got the knee bending to about 90% of where it was before the injury, and about 90% of the size of my left thigh back. So how have the last forty three years been.

No more ruptures. The knee structure has never looked like my good knee, as the patellar tendon is more spread out and not as narrow. In my twenties and thirties I ran a fair amount, and could run a six minute mile and ran some 15K races for fun. I've golfed, played tennis, more basketball and racquet ball some over the years, but the knee has never been 100%. More like 80%. Things like running downhill or walking down a steep hill have always caused me some discomfort. I've often worn a brace because it just felt better and more secure. I am 62 years old now, and in recent years the knee cap has had a tendency to shift out of position when at rest. Usually I can catch it but a few times in my sleep it has dislocated and I bent my knee when out of position and it crunched pretty bad. Lots of pain and swelling. But it will heal up in a week or so. If I have a situation where I have to go up and down stairs a lot, eventually I have to go one step at a time as the tendon will get tender. The doctor told me my tear was bad, he didn't have a lot to work with, and it would likely rupture again. So with that prognosis, I am pretty grateful for what I have been able to do and the job he did with the surgery. As bad as it looked when I was laying on the court 43 years ago, I feel fortunate. Whenever I hear of someone having a ruptured patellar tendon I always wince a bit and hope theirs is not too bad.

[John42]

Hi - What an interesting story - delighted that you are now in some ship shape and coping well. You have given me a very good idea, but I am only twenty year down, but stilkl trying to cope with pain in my kneecap, but can live a near normal life - Thanks again for your few words. JohnK Manchester UK