One year on from a partial knee replacement and Suzanne is now walking the dog and dancing the night away

She had been to see Adrian over the years who had given her temporary relief through a number of arthroscopies. But looking at the scans of Suzanne’s knee, Adrian found that there was damage on the top of her shinbone (medial tibial plateau), bare bone showing through frayed articular cartilage which was very worn and the posterior third of the meniscus was badly torn.

In February 2017, it was agreed Suzanne would have a partial knee replacement.

After the operation Suzanne was up and mobile very quickly and she rented an ice machine during the recovery phase to help control the pain and the swelling.

She said: “What was particularly pleasing was that I was able to take my dog out within a few weeks for a short walk around the woods – using just one crutch. I was driving and fully mobile without any crutches within 6 weeks and quickly started to build up the time I could spend walking.

“I was especially pleased to be able to test out my knee on the dance floor when my daughter got married last July. I had a wonderful time and danced the night away with the other guests, easily out-dancing my teenage sons!”

Suzanne said that the only lingering side effect was numbness around the knee which persisted for a few months. However this is now completely back to normal and one year post op she has no pain in the right knee and can comfortably walk the dog for at least 2 hours.

She added: “I know my left knee is heading in the same direction but, when the time is right, I’ll feel very confident of doing the same again.”

Adrian said: “Suzanne is pretty amazing after her knee replacement. In this situation surgery keyhole debridement or arthroscopy is of no real use as the patient is only likely to get very short term benefit – perhaps 3-6 months.

“Occasionally you get lucky but it is so occasional that we really do not offer keyhole washout arthroscopic surgery any more for this type of problem. It is more appropriate to assess the knee and see what sort of joint preserving procedure is possible in terms of osteotomy surgery, meniscal transplantation, joint surface surgery or a joint replacement – either partial or total.”