← Return to Scar tissue after knee replacement
DiscussionScar tissue after knee replacement
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Oct 10 8:31am | Replies (1550)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "@dduke that’s what I am considering having. I am just concerned about the rehab afterward. I..."
Good morning (again) JK, Gator, DDuke, and all -
There were some statements that arthroscopy as a treatment for arthrofibrosis was somewhat of a "new concept" - it isn't.
Neither is arthro or "open" lysis. There was a question on what this "arthrolysis" actually is. Here are the answers from NIH
(and invaluable source). Please note that when surgeons are generally aware of a problem but don't actually know what to
do - there is invariably comments about how "this is controversial" (which is another way of them saying - they don't actually
know what to do... which they seem to have a hard time saying). The same way that it is with MUA's and standard arthoscopies -
surgeons know how to do these procedures, but the actual efficacy (in other words - did it "work" for the patient) is at best
"questionable".
Depending on which report you read - you get extremely low numbers (like 3-6% in this one) but then more realistic numbers
like "one in five" (20%) who have long term problems with their TKR surgeries - the most common complaint being "a stiff and
painful knee" (and if that ain't a layman's description of an arthrofibrotic knee - don't know what is). I have heard higher numbers -
and who knows ? The one thing we do know for sure is that this is a VERY large number of people - and if it was ONLY 6% of
the people who were taking a medication (instead of having a surgical procedure reccommended) and THEN became disabled and chronic pain patients, do you think that medication would continue to be on the market without comment (or lawsuits) ?
Anyway... here's the NIH article on arthrolysis (and it's pretty detailed - as all NIH stuff is):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4246397/
Best all,
John
PS - Maybe I wasn't listening/reading carefully, but did anyone out there say they experienced long term relief from
having had an arthrolysis (when they previously suffered from arthrofibrosis) ? Thanks for letting me know.
My experience from the arthroscopic arthrolysis is that the rehab is not as intensive as following the TKR. I did have hydrotherapy which was lush and relaxing, but not nearly as painful as it was after replacement and MUA