I am scheduled for an HTO knee osteotomy in March.
I am curious if others have gone through this and what their recovery process involved.
How long before weight bearing?
How long off work?
Results - can you now run ? (I’ve had to hang up the shoes since 2006, I can walk for miles but can’t run)
Do it again, or results did not meet expectations?
I had grade IV, full-thickness kissing lesions over most of my LFC and tib plateau, and no lateral meniscus…I was 33. I had an open-wedge DFO (Distal Femoral) 36 months ago. My bone graft was donor tissue, which if you are having an open wedge, I would recommend over having it taken from your illiac crest. The DFO is a slightly different protocol and longer recovery time than an HTO, but similar on the whole. The plan was about 8 weeks of TTWB (toe-touch only on crutches), and then a move to a cane, and so forth. My recovery ended up being substantially more protracted, as I suffered a secondary fracture on the medial side of my femur. I ended up on bed rest for quite awhile. It delayed it by a bit–basically doubled it.
Overall timeline: My procedure was in January, I was about 8 weeks in bed, then TTWB. I was away from work from January until April (10 weeks)–although I worked from home for most of that period. My brace came off for sleeping at 73 days post op. At about 12 weeks, I could start spinning on the trainer, no resistance, no torque. I could also swim with a pull buoy. By Day 100, I was cleared to begin adding some resistance on the trainer, and could swim without limitations. The brace came off at week 16. By week 20, I was down to a cane, esp. when standing/walking, I could ET for 30 minutes or so, and was riding–lighter resistance–for 45-60 minutes a day.
My first ride outside was about 6 months post op–very low intensity, no climbing, etc. By October, I was riding 7-14 hours a week. Lower intensity, but lots of volume (for me). I did my first actual run about 14 months post op (although it had been longer than that since I had run, as I had another surgery a few months before the DFO).
By about two years, I was close to 100% in the surgical leg (well, 100% of what it was–which has been less than 100% of the other for most of my life).
My knee itself feels great–even with the recovery that took 2x as long as expected, it was well worth it. My hardware has given me troubles, and I am scheduled to have it removed tomorrow, actually. (Although I have developed a cold in the last two days, so we’ll see if they postpone on me)