4 Most Common Types Of Surgery To Heal Chondromalacia Patella Knee Pain

There are four most common types of surgeries used to treat Chondromalacia knee pain, I’ll be covering them with you right now from least invasive to most invasive. And after I tell you about all these surgeries, I’m going to explain to you why surgery is not a true long term solution for Chondromalacia Patella, the first surgery is called a lateral release surgery.

So in this surgery, what is being done is on the outside part of the knee, the front of the knee, where there’s a bunch of ligaments, really thin ligaments, it’s actually called the retinaculum, if you look this up, but they’re kind of ligament like structures, and they’re really thin, they cover the outside of the kneecap here and they just helped to position the kneecap side aside, they’ll do a lateral release where they cut the retinaculum or the ligaments in the area.

And the theory behind this is that it helps to push the kneecap over towards the inside. The reason for this is because the thinking is that on the knee, let me show you the other model here. You have a groove on the thigh bone right here. And the kneecap has a little bump on the back of it that sits in that groove.

And so the thinking is that if you’re rubbing your kneecap back you’re locked causing that Chondromalacia Patella syndrome the or the patellofemoral pain syndrome. I’ve talked about this in other videos, how they’re both connected to each other.

The main difference is that in Chondromalacia Patella, you actually have damage to the cartilage behind the kneecap, and it could be on the end of the thigh bone here. But if you’ve gotten that far, and you’re looking at getting surgery, potentially for a conundrum relation, patella problem, then the theory is that your kneecap is shifted over and by releasing the ligaments on the side here.

It’ll help to reposition the kneecap better into the groove of the thigh bone here, that’s the least invasive because they just do an incision on the outside of course have to go through the skin, but they’re not having to get into the joints or deal with the cartilage or any other bone structures.

The second type of surgery is an arthroscopic Khandro plasti for Chondromalacia Patella, and all that means it’s big words, arthroscopic means they’re using little tiny holes in your skin. And they have tools, special surgical tools that fit through those holes else column ports, and they can access everything. That way.

They’re avoiding making a big cut in your skin, that big incision and opening up your entire knee joint because that just exposes you to higher risks of infection and other problems. So they can make just a little tiny hole that’s an arthroscopic incision is what it’s called, and put little tools in there, then it’s less invasive.

And when they’re doing a Khandro plasti Khandro means cartilage and plasti means are changing it somehow like plastic how plastic can be shaped and changed differently. What they’re doing is smoothing out the potentially rough cartilage on the back of your kneecap right here. And the theory behind this is that if your knee is hurting because you’re rubbing the kneecap against the thigh bone too hard and you’re fraying the cartilage back there, there could be fragments or, or frayed pieces of cartilage hanging out that shouldn’t be there.

And it’s rubbing the joint inappropriately here causing the knee pain. And so if you smooth out the cartilage, then theoretically you should have more smooth knee motion and it should hurt less. Now very often. This Khandro plasti. The arthroscopic Khandro plasti and the lateral release are done together at the same time. But you can technically have each one done individually. Now the arthroscopic Kandra plasti is a little more invasive because they’re going deeper into the joints and they’re actually affecting the cartilage on the back of the kneecap right there.

Number three is a patellar microfracture surgery. Now the idea of a microfracture surgery is relatively new in the surgical world. And there’s some very interesting thoughts behind this. And I think there’s huge potential for improving many different conditions with microfracture surgery. But I think there’s still not enough research out there and there isn’t a whole lot of certainty behind when is the right time to use this kind of surgery and when it’s the wrong time.

And to give you a simple idea of what microfracture surgery is what they’re doing on the back of the kneecap here and this specific condition comes from relation patella, they’re drilling little holes on the back of the kneecap through the cartilage just deep enough to get to the bone where there’s a lot of blood, then they’re trying to cause bleeding in the area so that it can stimulate better cartilage growth on the back of the kneecap.

This surgery is a little more challenging to do not a ton of knee surgeons out there do this surgery, so you have to dig and find one but this is one that is being used for Chondromalacia Patella, and the hope is that you’ll heal enough to thicken the cartilage behind the kneecap here so that you have better cushion in the joint between the kneecap and the thigh bone.

Now, some complications with this is the rehabilitation process because this is a relatively new surgery, not a whole lot of physical therapists and surgeons understand how to properly rehabilitate somebody afterwards. And they want to make sure that to not push the patient too hard too soon, because cartilage growth and cartilage healing just takes a longer time than a lot of other tissues in the body.

This is why in sports like football, basketball, and other jumping and running related sports athletes tend to come back a bit too soon and have a failed microfracture procedure, because they’re just doing too much too soon. Now the fourth surgery that you can get for Chondromalacia, patella is a patella knee replacement.

So instead of replacing the entire joint, like a typical jaw replacement, and in a typical jaw replacement, they’re cutting off the end of the thigh bone here, the end of the shin bone, and they’re replacing your kneecap as well. In this case, they’re only replacing the kneecap because the theory is that that’s where the cartilage is most damaged. So if you just replace that, then it’s less invasive than replacing everything else.

Obviously, this is only done in extreme circumstances, chances are, you may have already gone through one of the other surgeries before you end up having a patella replacement. And you’re probably not a good candidate for a whole knee joint replacements, you would have to have extensive osteoarthritis throughout your knee joint.

Now, let me tell you why these surgeries are not really a long term fix because that’s typically how they’re seen very often people go try out different treatments, non surgical treatments, of course, injections, different types of injections. There’s a regenerative medicine injections like stem cells and all that. And what they’re saying because a lot of medical professionals talk like this.

They’re saying, Well, if I have to go to the last resort, I’m going to get a surgery because that’ll fix it all. But really, that’s not the case surgery doesn’t truly fix Chondromalacia Patella for the long term, it’s merely another short term fix. Now, it’s obviously going to be longer than just taking a pain medication or getting an injection because you theoretically are going to have longer lasting benefits.

But if the root problem that set up the conundrum, Alicia patella is not addressed, and you carry that root problem into life after surgery, then it’s just a matter of time before your kneecap starts to become a problem again, and what you need to understand is that root problem, the root problem is a muscle imbalance causing too much pressure in the knee joint right here.

If your quad muscles are too strong, as is typically the case with Chondromalacia Patella, then that quad muscle is going to pull and yank that kneecap against the thigh bone, usually glute muscles, or some foot muscles involved here to the glute muscles are not strong enough. And as a result of that the quad muscles end up doing more work, then they get stronger and cause more compression here in the kneecap.

That’s why the kneecap also tends to slide inwards, or really, it’s the thigh bone that that doesn’t get in the right position, the thigh bone tends to go inwards, and it changes the alignment of the kneecap on the thigh bone. All of this stuff can be fixed naturally without surgery. We do it here in our clinic all the time.

And we have exercises on the internet here that you can begin to do for Chondromalacia Patella, so that you can begin to improve naturally without having to rely on pain medications, injections, and definitely without having to get a surgery that you could possibly not need. Now, I’m not saying you should never ever get surgery, because you actually might be a good candidate, it might be the best next step for you.

But what I am saying is don’t get a surgery and expect that to fix everything without ever working on the root problem. My hope for you is that if you end up having to get a surgery for Chondromalacia Patella is that you’re at least aware of this root problem and then you have a chance of fixing it so that you don’t have to have another surgery.

Another concern of mine is there’s recent research being done on meniscus surgeries. meniscectomy is where they’re finding that people that get meniscectomy surgery are more likely to get knee osteoarthritis as time goes on. Now, to my knowledge there is no research showing a connection between Chondromalacia surgeries like the ones I’ve told you about in this video, and arthritis in future years, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible.

I think it’s just not being researched. My hunch is that if you go get a surgery for Chondromalacia Patella and you’re not mindful of fixing the root problem, then chances are you’re on a quick path to getting knee osteoarthritis, which means you might end up Having a knee replacement later on.

If you’re not taking care of your knee health, I strongly recommend you check out some of our other videos here to learn more about exercises to fix Chondromalacia Patella, we’ve got one link in the description below here. And you should also consider checking out our 28 Day knee health and wellness boosts program.

It’s a comprehensive program designed to help you treat the root problem that causes Chondromalacia Patella. Hey, if you thought this video was helpful, please give us a thumbs up and please share this video with somebody who you think needs to hear this. And don’t forget to subscribe to this video and turn on your notification bell so that you don’t miss out on any of the helpful videos we upload every week. I’ll see you in the next video. Bye