Patient was a 42 year old male, weight 145 pounds, 5'-11". When the patient was 18 he had a knee injury playing soccer and had the cartilage inside the knee removed.. I believe this is called the Meniscus Cartilage. He recovered from this and spent the next 11 years playing soccer at the college and semi-professional level. He was very active, playing year round indoor and out often as much as 3 games a week and more than 40 games a year.
When the patient was 29 he fractured the fibula on the same leg. A spiral fracture, low on the leg. This was casted for 6 weeks and the patient made a full recovery. He went back to playing soccer for a full year after this injury with no pain.
About a year later the patient starting having pain on the inside of the knee. He saw a doctor who recommend orthscopic surgery to "grind away the bone where it was touching" and he also advised the patient to stop playing all sports. The surgery was done, and the patient fully recovered.
About 6 months later the patient tried to return to playing soccer but could not. Running was also painful, so the patient sought out another doctor for a second opinion. This doctor put the patient on a serious diet of physical therapy and had him fitted with orthotics in his shoes to shift the weight to the outside of his leg.
The patient wore these orthotics and did PT for about a year. The knee didn't get much worse, but never really got much better either. The patient could walk and stand without pain but running was still not possible. After a year the patient noticed pain in the hip and ankle of that leg, so he removed the orthotics from his shoes and continued PT. This worked for another 8 years or so with the knee slowly getting worse, but not unbareable.
Hoping that advances in medicine might now have a solution
for him, the patient returned to the doctor that last treated
him to see if "anything new was possible". At this time
Dr. Richmond discussed an osteotomy with the patient and also
recommended talking with Dr. Elting who did osteotomies differently.
After discussing options with Dr. Richmond and Dr. Elting and
also reading up on osteotomies and exteranl fixators the patient
decided to try this procedure.
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