# Microfracture surgery anyone had it?



## Jeepnick (Nov 6, 2015)

I’m scheduled to have a torn meniscus repaired and a microfracture procedure in 2 weeks. Curious to see if anyone has had this done and what there timeline was to getting back on the bike outside road and or mtn. The doc said I’d be on the trainor before I could walk but I couldn’t get much more out of him 
Thanks


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

Yes, but I'm about 8 weeks after surgery, so it's too early to tell anything. From what I understand, it's going to be a few months later before I start to know the efficacy of it, since it depends on the clot turning into fibro-cartilage over time and the shaping/security of it while it does so. I had it on my ankle with arthroscopic surgery to fix a defect caused by a chipped bone that eventually screwed up the joint of the Talas and Femur. 

In my case, I'm back to weight bearing (2 weeks in) and the doc said only now that I can do light cycling/trainer. 

The first few weeks was pretty shitty, after two weeks they put me in a hard cast and cleared me to start hitting the gym again, which I've been doing hard with mid and upper-body. My foot gets some blood in it from standing and at night it feels like it's on fire due, also partially due to the nerves having to "wake up" again according to the Doc. The joint feels ok, a little bit of pain in the same area as before, but it's not bad either, I can walk around and such pretty well, I have a big hard ski-boot thing to walk around in when I'm out and about, 4 more weeks of it. Right now I'm in the "transitioning to more and more weight bearing". 

All joints are different though so what works for one may not work for another.


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## bizango (Mar 20, 2016)

Jeepnick - Do you know what area of the knee and how big of an area they are doing microfracture? Hopefully it is successful. I've heard mixed results and a lot of it depends on where it is at. I had a big hole in the trochlea on each knee and ended up needing to get a cartilage graft. It was too big for microfracture and the doctor didn't feel it was a good option for my condition. All I can recommend is be patient. Good luck.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

Yes, it depends on the size of the defect.

This was the best write-up I found on the net on my specific procedure: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5382233/

I found a lot of differing articles about recovery time and weight bearing. I'm not sure what it all depends on, but the doc has said he's never regretted telling anyone to wait a few additional weeks rather than tell someone to get back on it too fast. The number one key is having the clot turn to the cartilage, so whatever allows for that is what's best.

My doc said that he's not seen anything proving stem cells help with recovery, although people are doing it these days. It seems to help in some procedures/situations, but just because it does there doesn't mean it will with your specific procedure.

Hope it goes alright. I didn't have much pain after the procedure, but I'm getting swelling at night now that I'm out of a cast and weight bearing again, it's not so much swelling as it seems to be the nerves misfiring. The actual joint and procedure area seems pretty good.


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## Jeepnick (Nov 6, 2015)

I don’t know the tech terms 
The inside of my knee is having a third meniscus tear repair and the bad cartilage is on the outside of my knee 
Reading online I see mixed results too 
But the doctor seemed very confident this was the right solution, this is my second option first one was tossing around the oats procedure and that recovery sounded awful


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## Jeepnick (Nov 6, 2015)

Thanks for the info
I’m not sure how similar the procedures are from ankle to knee 
And i don’t think he’ll know how bad it is until he gets inside. My last knee surgery the doc said my cartridge was much worse then the mri showed 
Not sure what that means 
I just want to get back on the bike as soon as possible
Without pushing it of course


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## bizango (Mar 20, 2016)

"And i don’t think he’ll know how bad it is until he gets inside."

This was surprisingly true in my case. Based on the MRI it looked like a small defect that needed to be cleaned up. What he really found was entirely different. Even though I didn't like the news, it was ultimately refreshing and gave me some peace of mind to at least finally know what I was dealing with. Before that I just never knew and it keeps you constantly second guessing on what appropriate activities are, and that gets old.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

I was lucky in that respect.

I couldn't really see well what the doc was talking about on the x-ray, but he seemed pretty confident he knew what it was based on it. When we did the MRI, it showed the defect plain as day to me and it appeared to be exactly what he was talking about initially. Then after surgery he said it was exactly as thought, not a big lesion, no complications, everything else looked good.

One of these is a side view and one is straight on, I circled the problem in red.















Unfortunately, I have surgically-induced neuropathic pain right now making it very hard to sleep at night. On the bright side, I am finally cleared for light cycling and I can go out and ride. Usually, I get raynauds syndrome in my extremities and right now it's the exact opposite. No real swelling, if I said that earlier I wasn't really saying it right, but ice/ice-water does provide relief at least for the time applied. I'm trying to get my nerves to "reset", I'm hoping cycling will help.


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