Friday, January 16, 2015

Surgery Decision, Mostly Made


After three different doctor visits, a lot of time thinking and gathering information, I think a decision has been made (pending a few phone calls).

We are going with a different orthopaedic doctor.  She recommends  a distal femoral osteotomy, in both legs.  If this is the only procedure, Elena won't have to wear casts--just braces that we can remove if needed (bathing, etc.).  She may have something done with her patellar tendons; I'm not sure yet.  If she does, she'll need to be in casts for 6-8 weeks.  

That's the short version, anyway.  Her hips are fine (shallow, but fine).  The distal (femur end near the knee instead of the hip) osteotomy makes sense to me, given her femoral ante version and how badly her knees are angled toward her center line.  If this helps her posture/gait, which is the intent and which the doctor believes it will, less pressure should be on her knees/ankles/big toes, which should help alleviate (or at minimum, not worsen) her issues related to her crouch.  

The majority of stories I read related to surgery regret seem to focus on procedures involving the hips.  Has anyone had a distal femoral osteotomy (not involving hips) out there?  What was your experience? Are you glad you did it? How was recovery?

The procedure, as far as I understand it, is relatively simple and the cut site gets some sort of "cap" on the bone, which is supposed to make the overall process (including recovery) quick.  This doctor believes that changing the bony structure is a better way to help crouch gait than lengthening tendons.  I'm not sure I believe this, but regardless--I do think that in Elena's case, the osteotomies should yield good results.

I look forward to any and all comments.  

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

HI AMY I LOOOKED UP THE NAME OF THE PROCEdURE YOU MENTIONED AND if YOU DO THAT THEN YOU WILL GET THE INFO THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. MELISSA

Anonymous said...

Some of these types of bone surgeries lead to not being able to walk at all. Be careful. I feel tendon surgeries are better for and on the body.

Anonymous said...

Sounds quite invasive. Have you consider Dr Roy Nuzzo in Summit New Jersey? All the best xxxx

Anonymous said...

I had tendon lengthening once when I was 5 and have never crouched since then. Maybe you should consider more tendon surgery instead of bone surgery. Though I understand the desire to do knee surgery because of her patella.

Anonymous said...

Do you read the blog bringing the sunshine? If not you should check it out, her daughter has recently had this exact surgery so I'm sure you could find a wealth of information there

Anonymous said...

There is a new international hospital in Bangalore India offering the new minimally less invasive revolutionary orthopaedic multi level surgery called SEMLARASS devised by Indian surgeon Dr Deepak Sharan. If you google SEMLARASS you should be able to find it.

They lengthen the muscles digitally apparently, hence it is less invasive compared to transitional surgery. Maybe embark on fundraising for your daughter.