Recommended, 2024

Editor'S Choice

"A small procedure protected me from a knee prosthesis"

A knee prosthesis does not necessarily have to be necessary.
Photo: Juice Images - Corbis

A reader reports

Going for a walk with the dog? Bring the garbage down? For years Michaela Rieker was the only pain. Reason: The Lüneburgerin suffered from severe pain in the knee joint .

"At some point it was so bad that I hardly left my apartment, " recalls the 62-year-old. The visits to various orthopedic surgeons made the trained administrative employees little courage: repeatedly Michaela's knee was punctured, but a recovery simply did not want to adjust.

"The doctors said that you can not do much about the pain - they are just normal signs of aging." The only alternative they offered was an artificial knee joint. "I thought the idea was terrible, but I was almost ready to get involved in the knee prosthesis, " says Michaele Rieker. "The main thing is that the pain was finally gone."

Today she is glad that she got another opinion at the time. On the recommendation of a friend, Michaela Rieker sought knee specialist Dr. med. Dierk at the Orthopedics Center Hamburg. Quickly, the doctor found the cause of her pain: slight O-legs that influenced Michaela's entire statics.

With a conversion surgery, the patient was released from her torment. In such an operation, the surgeon saws first a few inches into the inside of the tibial bone. Then the bone is bent up until it compensates for the malposition. A metal plate and several screws then fix the joint.

"Due to the malposition of the legs, the inside of the knee joint was overloaded", explains Dr. med. Dierk. "The cartilage had dissolved, rubbing bones on bones and causing the bad pain. A straightening of the legs freed Mrs. Rieker of the overload ", so the knee specialist.

Michaela is happy with the result: "Now I can live with my real joint for a long time. Fortunately, I do not need a knee prosthesis ! "Today, she regularly does sports again and walks a lot on foot every day.

Top