I have just had an Arthroscopy and have a Grade II Cartilage Defect of the Medial Femoral Condyle which has been debrided. In the picture, it looks like a chunk of cartilage is missing which the Consultant “tidied up”. The rest of the knee is OK and the Minisci are in tact.
This has stopped me running for a year but it has never stopped me from cycling as hard as I liked.
Has anybody had anything similar and has been able to run afterwards. I would also like to understand the long term prognosis as well.
Hey J, I had the same thing a few years ago but mine was a half dollar size defect. Anyway, after my microfracture, it took abut 2 years for the knee to be ok…for me. My dr. didn’t say not to run, but didn’t recommend it either! Everyone heals differently and reacts differently. Mine is painful when I run but I’ve learned to run a bit differently on it with minimal pain. I’m not as fast as I used to be, but I could run on it. Is it a good idea? don’t know, but I doubt it at this point. Impact on a defective joint in my opinion cant help it!!! but I’m not a dr. and don’t want to discourage you. Myself, well, I see the same thing happening to me right now with my other knee, so who knows if it was the running or just bad genes (even though no one in my family has ever had this f’ing problem!!!) Listen to your dr., do what the PT says…cross your fingers! I hate not being able to run right now, but I’m too young for knee replacements, and I want to be able to at least play a bit with my kids when they get older. I hope you heal well and get back at it soon. Good luck.
Hi All,
I have just had an Arthroscopy and have a Grade II Cartilage Defect of the Medial Femoral Condyle which has been debrided. In the picture, it looks like a chunk of cartilage is missing which the Consultant “tidied up”. The rest of the knee is OK and the Minisci are in tact.
This has stopped me running for a year but it has never stopped me from cycling as hard as I liked.
Has anybody had anything similar and has been able to run afterwards. I would also like to understand the long term prognosis as well.
I’m sorry you have this. Did the surgeon recommend you stop trying to run? Your defect is Grade 2, do they think it will be made worse if you run?
I have a Grade 4, 15mm defect on my lateral trochlear surface, so not as weight bearing as yours and I had arthroscopy to remove a loose body (12mm) and clean up the knee on Oct 28th. I’ve recovered well and I am swimming and biking again. PT has also gone well and they encouraged me to try some short runs this week. It feels OK, no pain, but definitely still not right. Most of my pain pre surgery was caused by the loose body so I had pretty much instant relief from that after surgery. I also just had one of the Supratz (lubricant) shots in my knee. Like you, everything else (meniscus etc) in the knee looks great. I hit my knee hard during a bike crash and I think that’s what caused my injury.
There are a few folks on here who have had Microfracture, OATS or similar procedures done on full thickness (grade 4) defects and are running again.
My concern is the long term health of my knee so I don’t plan on running much, if at all. In the short term, I’d like to avoid a procedure such as Microfracture due to the lengthy rehab and in the long term, I’d still like to be able to swim, bike, walk without pain.
I think you should talk your goals over with the surgeon and PT and get their opinion if running on it will make it worse. Good luck!
I say yes you can run again. But to do so you have to be very consistent and incremental in your approach. Cartilage can self-repair sufficiently to regain its ability to be a shock absorber. It can be strengthened just like muscle, it just takes much longer. It needs many, many repetitions working up to increasing loads. Plan to do 500 reps per day of full motion of your knee for the next 12 months, start with no load and gradually add some load working your way up to one legged support of full body weight. When you can tolerate full body weight without pain or symptoms then start running short distances. Don’t do too much too soon or you will disrupt the healing process. Good luck.
Sorry about the injury. I had the same thing two years ago. Doc recommended microfracture so I dove in. It is THE LONGEST recovery of an injury I’ve ever had. I ran my first complete mile exactly 1 year later, I now am running 10-12 miles a week and slowly gaining speed back. I was never very fast to begin with so its not as if I’ve lost my chance to turn pro. I am almost completely pain free except for a few twinges when I push it too hard. The good new is I can participate in everything, play with the kids, bike race, even did a couple of slow tri’s over the summer. The bad news is the first year was really challenging and will test your patience. PM me if you want more info, be sure to make an informed decision. good luck
I say yes you can run again. But to do so you have to be very consistent and incremental in your approach. Cartilage can self-repair sufficiently to regain its ability to be a shock absorber. It can be strengthened just like muscle, it just takes much longer. It needs many, many repetitions working up to increasing loads. Plan to do 500 reps per day of full motion of your knee for the next 12 months, start with no load and gradually add some load working your way up to one legged support of full body weight. When you can tolerate full body weight without pain or symptoms then start running short distances. Don’t do too much too soon or you will disrupt the healing process. Good luck.
I was under the impression that articular cartilage is unlikely to heal itself. I know that sometimes the body can produce the fibrocartilage by itself without Microfracture but that it is very rare?
Man, have I been there. Everything I have read here is correct. I have the same thing and the same micro-fracture when I was 36 & running 36 minute 10Ks. I didn’t run for 5 years +/-. I came back with a much , much better understanding of what it takes to keep my core and my knee strong. The pain never went away but it didn’t get any worse either. I only ran 3 times a week. The best 10K time,since has been 42 min. I was able to maintain that time for a few years, the last time being November of 2010. I have been working on stretching out my mileage, the last few years with limited success. The knee is starting to hurt again, but I’m not giving up. I just turned 50. I’m confident that with patience and discipline that both you and I will be all right and continue to enjoy running.
I had the exact surgery in July 2010. Recovery went slowly but I did not try to push it. I ran the Moab Trail Marathon in November of this year. The deal I made with myself was to stop running on pavement and stick to trails. Less impact force, more fun. Do your therapy, go easy and return to running slowly. My surgeon said to never run again, I decided against taking his advice and podiumed for the first time in my life in a 10K at my first race back.
There is new surgical repair technique for those with OCD lesions that appears to be promising. Slowtwitcher Dr. J and I have peformed the allograft tissue implanatation on local triathletes here in the community and it looks promising thus far. Long story short, it is a single staged procedure using juvenile hyaline cartilage and fibrin. The main difference between this technique and others is the use of juvenille chondrocytes. Adult articluar cartilage has limited capacity for self-repair and typically will form fibrocartilage. The idea is for the defect to repair with hyaline cartliage, thus the use of the juvenille cartliage. Studies have shown chondral defects treated with juvenile autologous chondrocyte transplantation show qualitatively better microscopic and macroscopic regeneration than do those treated with other repair techniques.
Dr. J I am sure would chat to you more if you want to know more specifics.
Everyone is different of course, but odds are good you could resume running–maybe with some modifications to amount, but maybe not. It also depends on your pain tolerance and your own personal thresholds of when enough is enough. Definitely do your research and know what is feasible and what is not, what folks are doing, get a few opinions, and work with a doc and a PT you trust. FWIW, I am grade IV over the majority of my lateral compartment, and have no mensicus (giving me what’s called “kissing lesions”). I am still running. Not huge amounts, but enough to keep the itch satisfied
I’m not the only one who’s had that procedure, or a similar one. And it’s not that bad…really! I mean, it is sort of a long recovery, esp. if you jack it up, but totally worth it!
In my search for recovery stories etc, I came across this thread. During an FTP test on the trainer early November I felt something in my left knee. Didn’t feel major so I continued, but when I got off of the bike, my knee hurt pretty bad… Decided to ice it and give it some rest, went for a 2.5-3h bike ride a few days later and started to hurt again. Iced it, let it rest a couple of days and went for a 5k run. That evening it started to hurt again… Went to the doctor and thought I had damaged the cartilage in my knee and he prescribed me glucosamine pills that should help restore the cartilage. Didn’t run for an entire month but swam 3x a week without it bothering me and some indoor cycling. Did a 5k run and afterwards again pain…
So I went to get an MRI done since the doctor thought things should have improved by then.
Verdict: - Menisci and ligaments intact
Normal collateral bands
Bakers cyste (this also showed up on an MRI of 3 years ago when I only suffered some ITB issues but never has bothered me)
Normal quadriceps and patellar tendon
Hoffa fat pad shows homogenous
Patella shows full thickness and good delineation (if that’s the correct way to put it)
And the one that worries me: Chondral erosion internal side of medial condyl
Not sure how bad the “erosion” is… Never had a meniscus tear or anything, only some IT band issues…
I still have an appointment planned to go and see a knee specialist, but first date that was available was April 24th so… I’ve been doing PT work for about a month now, strenghtening the quads (especially inner side seems to be underdeveloped compared to right leg) etc. I’ve been able to run 3-3.5k twice now without pain (some swelling visible the next day) at a moderate pace. But all those stories of people not being able to run without pain are kinda depressing to be honest
I’m not the only one who’s had that procedure, or a similar one. 