Jiffy knee replacement

I had wonderful success with hyaluronic acid injections and they have enabled me to postpone TKR for nearly 3 years. Does anyone know if a "wait time" is recommended from last HA injection until the knee surgery? If so, that kind of timing and perhaps the reason for waiting?
Thank you to all on this site for sharing experience and encouragement!

My husband just had his one year check up for his jiffy knees so I asked the PA why the difference in how some incisions look worse. She said it’s usually just how each persons body reacts to the sutures and what has been used to close the incisions. It will still heal nicely. My husbands first one bruised and the second one barely at all. He had a little numbness on the outside of one that went away soon and none on the other knee.
A minimally invasive procedure scar is usually 4-6 inches. The Dr and PA feel that doesn’t give them enough room to get a good visual. A regular scar is 8-12 inches and the size can depend on the persons size.
Good luck to you!

Not truly unique. The muscle is the vastus muscle and many knee surgeons do a "SubV" or "subvastus" approach which is what Jiffy knee does.

I am scheduled in ten days to get a new knee from a surgeon (Jimmy Chow) who uses the subvastus method. I am also hoping that the implant will be bicruciate retaining. My ACL and PCL look good on the MRI but I am concerned about the dislocation and whether it is too extreme for a bicruciate implant. It would be great if I could keep my ACL and PCL.

My has been to find a skilled surgeon using the subvastus method who has successfully done it at least hundreds of times using a robot (mine uses the CORI robot). Method, skill and experience.

Of the three, I believe that successful experience is the most important. I was chatting with my surgeon who is the principal inventor of the newest approach to hip replacement (superpath -- he did my left hip and I had zero pain from the surgery) and, although he is the inventor of the newest and best method of hip replacement, he also believes that the experience requirement is the most important.

A friend of mine is scheduled for a knee replacement with a Jiffy Knee surgeon here in Scottsdale. I mentioned that to my surgeon who commented that this Jiffy Knee surgeon in question is a good one with lots of experience but they might not all be.

So...approach (subv or equivalent), skill and lots of successful experience. Things can still go wrong but this will maximize your opportunity for a successful and relatively painless experience.

Has anyone tried or heard UFLEXA FOR BONE ON BONE??

@barbfred ,
I was hoping to postpone forever having the second one done... but atlas my knee is telling me differently.

Starting the research on this Jiffy as more surgeons have been educated in Dr. Patel's techniques near me. Healthgrades can't even report on this however, or any other reviewing methods on surgeon's techniques and quality. as it's so new.

A major concern for me: How do we schedule and plan for such major surgery as our country is on fire and on the edge of a revolution? Seriously.

Crazy stuff going down all around. Guns, ICE, the Constitution being shredded... Can I really fit a major surgery in right now? All hell is breaking loose as everyone is realizing what these tariffs are doing and the loss of health benefits etc....

@cathymw

Jiffy knee is not really new. It is a trademarked version of a subvastus method which has been around for a long time.
In my opinion, and that of my incredible hip/knee surgeon, extensive successful experience is the key to any such surgery, whether it be by Jiffy Knee or any other method, even the traditional method. The only problem with a subvastus approach is that it gives the surgeon a much smaller and more difficult field to work in and that requires greater skill.
I told my surgeon that a buddy of mine was scheduled to get a Jiffy Knee in December. He told me that in his opinion, the key issue is the extensive successful experience. He asked me which Jiffy surgeon it was and when I told him he replied that he had not seen any problems from that surgeon's work (my surgeon spends about 20% of his time doing revisions of other surgeons' work) which is a compliment.
One advantage of Jiffy Knee is that it trains the surgeon in more modern techniques. For example, if a potential knee replacement candidate has a surgeon who still uses a tourniquet routinely, my advice would be to hobble as fast as possible to the exit door. The scientific evidence is now clear that a tourniquet is not helpful and may even be harmful for a TKR. Jiffy knee doctors do NOT use a tourniquet.
Check out the experience of the Jiffy Knee surgeons in your area. Read reviews. consider other surgeons using similar methods. I was not only bone on bone but severely misaligned. However, my ACL appeared to be viable and I also wanted a bicruciate retaining implant ("BCR") which requires more complex surgery. My guy did a mini midvastus entry, found my ACL was strong and did a BCR and did a functional alignment of my new knee. I had NO meaningful post surgery pain and never took any of the Oxycodone pills that were prescribed.

Once you identify potential surgical candidates, make sure that the experience is with the particular surgery you are about to get. If a surgeon was very experienced doing traditional knee surgeries, and had recently been trained in and commenced doing Jiffy knees, I would want him to have at least a hundred of the Jiffy Knees under his belt before I trusted him to do mine. I don't count the thousands of traditional surgeries he may have done.

What you are doing is trying to maximize your opportunities for a successful outcome. Knee surgeries are bell curves like most things in life. What you are trying to do is to put yourself as close as possible to the positive side of the bell curve and hope to be an outlier on that side. But chance does play a role and no matter how good the surgeon is, one can end up on the wrong side. But I like to maximize my chances and I have twice ended up an outlier on the positive side (same surgeon: left hip replaced about three years ago; right knee replaced 27 days ago; heading to the golf course when I finish up these notes).

That is the most precise and informational post on this site since I became on board. I thank you for your extensive reply.

After a visit to the orthopedic Urgent Care yesterday, as I could not flex past 110* nor get below 12* on my un-operated knee, with major pain with any weight bearing all of a sudden. Did not hear a pop... just the bone on bone is begging to be noticed. My x-rays are significantly worse since just less than a year and a half ago (I thought walking was good and lubed our knees?). Hence the quest again for the best techniques and surgeons.

I've made a list of Nano verses Jiffy or even traditional. The Jiffy surgeons in my area (Ohio) have all been recently trained (August) and their training was to perform 10 surgeries under the Dr. Patel tutelage. I suspect most surgeons on that Jiffy list are in the same boat, as when I checked last year, the list was much smaller. So I looked up their backgrounds, reviews, health grades, experience... Some of these surgeons are definitely looking for the newest, sparkly money-maker ( training in arthroscopic sports medicine training?)... I'd at least expect some certification in orthopedic surgery thank you. Some trained as general surgeons, no specialty residency. Intriguing was a surgeon trained in pediatric orthopedics... (kinda thought that he may be used to working in tight spots?). It's a crap shoot and so much work. I miss my old insurance's Healthcare concierge coach. I wish we had access to some of their patients!

My first surgery Dr. rated in top % in America, a Center for Excellence program through our insurance. Everything was really absolutely wonderful. The care was top notch from the get-go until discharge. Every single aspect patient care and comfort were top priority at Northwestern University Medicine, Illinois. I was a healthy person who did +10,000 steps a day, health diet, non-smoker, good weight... What happened?

PT was delayed until 7 days after surgery once home (4 hours away) due to nurse sent to home had Covid, fired her...delay... Once initiated, I was diligent in my out-pt PT, 3x/week with doing exercises at home... I just couldn't extend and flex my knee well no matter how hard we worked. Maybe using crutches contributed (everyone I know used a walker- my Dr. wanted crutches). Maybe I just formed extensive scar tissue no matter what?

At the 6 week post-op it was mentioned he could fix it while I was under for the second knee. Little did I know that meant an MUA (Manipulation Under Anesthesia). Can you imagine the poor PT trying to do PT on a brand new total, and the MUA leg as well? I postponed that second knee. It was also mentioned that he'd go down a half size or so for the next knee. That planted a seed of doubt if that too was contributing to the fact I couldn't bend much more than 90* still at that point! I still couldn't flatten my leg either. The PT had said she'd see one way or the other, not both issues! So many variables.

I had to start all over again with daily PT after that manipulation, then reducing to 3x/week... 2x/wk and finally ta-da! Over a year and a half later, it finally started to work pretty good. I have to stretch daily, ride my upright bicycle and do floor exercises to get her moving. I can achieve 125* and 0*. I recently sent my PT a short video of me hiking up a mountain at Glacier National Park. She helped me get there!

Now with this sudden terrible bone-on-bone stuff showing up, I gotta figure something out. There's life to be led. Love my NSAIDS and ice machine right now. Today is so much better than yesterday after icing all night. But there is the inevitable mountain to still climb for real.

I will take your suggestions, study, slow down and make a plan.

Nevertheless... there's a country on fire and our health benefits may be out the door in the future? Who knows. Lots to consider

@cathymw
Just to close the loop, I played 17 holes of golf yesterday when the golf course was cart path only (so I had to walk back and forth from the cart path to my balls in the fairway. 27th day post surgery!
I do believe in shared credit. So I give myself 1% of the credit and my magical surgeon 99%.