Oct 23, 2006 9:37 am US/Central
Computerized Therapy Adds Bounce To Achy Joints
by Dennis Douda
(WCCO)
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Bill Clements damaged his knee playing baseball as a kid, Now he's getting a knee replacement in order to remain active.
CBS
Roughly a half-million total knee replacements will be performed this year. An aging population that wants to stay active -- and easier techniques -- have growing numbers of people crawling onto the operating table for pain relief. But, it's a big step with lots of little steps to follow.
"At this point I'm in pain almost every step I take," said Bill Clements, who has taken quite a journey this year, from hobbling through February to coasting through October. Although his story really begins about 30 years ago, back when he was a scrappy kid playing ball.
"I stole second base, slid. I was safe, but I ripped up my knee, tore some cartilage," said Clements.
Several surgeries followed but, over time, knee joint damage lead to degenerative arthritis. At just 43 years old, Clements was a young man in need of what might be thought of as an old man's operation.
"It was 10 years ago that he had knee arthroscopy and was advised that he needed a knee replacement, but given his age we've been trying to buy time for him," said Dr. Peter Daly, an orthopedic surgeon. "But it's gotten to the end of the road for him."
Clements' road to recovery has been a long one. But he got to take a shortcut which began Feb. 28 on the operating table with advanced surgery.
Because doctors want the replacement parts to last the rest of a patient's life, getting the best possible fit is essential, especially for a younger man like Clements. To achieve that, Daly used a computer to find the exact mechanical alignment of Clements' hip, knee and ankle joints.
Clements also benefited from a minimally invasive procedure to injure less of the surrounding tissue. Daly said a good way to think of knee replacement is to think of treating a bad tooth.
"You don't pull the whole tooth. You resurface it with a cap over the top of it," said Daly. "That's what we're doing. We're resurfacing the end of the bone on the femur, the end of the bone on the tibia and the backside of the kneecap."
There was no rest for the new knee. The very next morning a physical therapist showed up to take Clements for a walk.
Two months later, in April, Clements was getting around smoothly with a cane. But more gain demands more pain. Therapy began to focus on strength and range of motion. Clements' therapist pushed him to the limit of comfort and beyond.
"You've got to just basically grit your teeth and keep thinking, 'It's going to get better. It's going to get better. This is worth it,'" said Clements.
By July, Clements really could say he's getting back in the swing of things. He tested his knee in a battling cage, where it handled the grinding twist of a full cut with a ball bat. The following day he complained that the rest of his body now needed to catch up to his rebuilt knee.
Nine months later, Clements is now able to climb back on a bike for the first time in years and is feeling as young as he can remember, thanks to his decisive step to stop missing out on life.
Knowing what to expect made the process much easier. In fact, HealthEast Care System has a program called Joint Journey to ease patients along the way, which is the route Clements took.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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