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Special Report: Baby Boomers and Knee Replacement Surgery
Posted: Feb 22, 2012 2:56 PM by Lee Sausley - lsausely@kristv.com
Updated: Feb 22, 2012 5:58 PM
CORPUS CHRISTI - As you may have noticed, I was gone for most of January for a total knee replacement surgery. I'm just one of more than 600,000 Americans who'll undergo the same surgery this year.
In a series of 6 News special reports, I'll be looking into what causes painfully debilitating knee problems, what's involved in a total joint replacement surgery, and what to expect afterwards.
In the past decade, knee replacement surgery has more than tripled among Americans born between 1946 and 1963. That figure is expected to jump to an estimated 3.5 million patients a year within the next decade.
It turns out, trying to stay fit to avoid those extra ponds has taken a toll on a whole generation of Americans.
The baby boomers are the first generation trying to maintain active lifestyles in aging bodies - and they're less willing to use a cane - or put up with the pain and stiffness their grandparents endured.
I have what's called osteoarthritis. That's when the cartilage in a joint breaks down from wear and tear over time or due to an old injury. Since your body doesn't replace cartilage, you eventually have bone rubbing on boned which is very painful.
My problems first started when I was jogging and stepped in a sprinkler head hole hyperextending my right knee. It never healed and the stiffness and soreness slowly got worse. About 4 years ago I had arthroscopic surgery to clean out some of the debris, but that was just a temporary fix. In the past few years just standing up and getting out of chair, much less walking is painful. Forget about jogging or stairs... it just hurts too much.
The pain prompted me to seek treatment from Doctor James Dinn with the Orthopedic Center of Corpus Christi. He did the arthroscopic surgery on my right knee, so he already knew the territory.
X-rays made it clear that my knee was shot as 40 years of jogging, golf, and tennis had taken it's toll.
"But that's not the main thing, it's more like the traumatic damage to the joint from those activities," Dr. Dinn said. When I asked about the sprinkler head incident ten years ago, Dr. Dinn told me that's what likely caused damage to the meniscus of my right knee and started the deterioration.
Once you're down to bone rubbing against bone a total knee joint replacement is the best option to get rid of the pain and regain some of your mobility.
Given the track record of good results baby boomers are opting for the replacement surgery in record numbers at a much earlier age than their parents did. Surprisingly women are three times more likely to choose the surgery when compared to men.
"We see the ones we did back in the 80's are still doing okay. Well that's 25 years ago now, and so okay why wait until you're 70 years old if you know it's gonna last 25 years," Dr. Dinn says of the reason patients choose the surgery earlier in life.
I now have an artificial joint made of a cobalt chrome alloy, called valadium, in my right knee. Its designed to resurface the parts of the bones in my knee that were rubbing against each other.
"All the studies that are being done right now are showing that this lasts 20 years plus... easily that long and if you wear it out you can go in and take this off," Dr. Dinn said. Meaning that if I manage to wear out the artificial joint within my lifetime doctors can swap it out for a newer model.
Tomorrow we'll take a look at the really gnarly part of the whole process, the actual surgery. Dr. Dinn describes the operation as carpentry work.
In part three, we'll explore the importance of taking post-surgery rehabilitation seriously in order to ensure the whole process is a success.
Watch the 6 News Special Reports on KRIS at 5pm Wednesday (2/22), Thursday (2/23) and Friday (2/24).
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