quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
I’m not an ortho, but I am a worker’s comp attorney, so sometimes I think I am. I certainly deal with messed up knees and related medicals on a daily basis.

What was the original mechanism of injury? How old is she?

>>Early fifties


Did she have any complaints at all prior to that?

>>Not to my knowledge

Is she better, the same, or worse since the surgery?

>>Worse she says.

Happy to make some educated guesses, but if there was no meniscus tear, I’d love to know exactly what the surgeon did. You can’t “clean up” arthrits, but you can scrape and smooth the bony rubbing surfaces in an effort to reduce friction. If he debrided damaged tissue that wasn’t meniscal, I’m not sure what it was. Finally, meniscus don’t heal and typically the more you take off to “repair” a tear, the more likely they are to tear in the future.

>>Yeah, I agree (for what that is worth). I suspect he tried to clean some of the cartilage up, but do not know what he truly did.

Sounds like she had at least some moderate pre-existing degeneration.

Don’t need to see the MRI, but the radiologist’s report and op note should be enough to at least give you a non-ortho surgeon translation of what’s going on with her knee.

>>I would like to read it as well. Maybe I can get a copy.

-Rob