Autologous Chondrocyte Implant

The pain was relatively minimal following the surgery. Easily manaageable through pills. However, my perception may be skewed - I've had a staff infection in that knee a couple of years ago that was extremely painful. Anything after that is easy. Right now I'm finishing 6 weeks - with 8 hours a day on a CPM machine (continuous passive motion). That really takes about 10-12 hours to complete, because it's hard to do it continuously. Following this, I'm expecting therapy 3x week at about 2 hours and home exercise every other day for about an hour. You just need to be aware that the CPM is very important, and time consuming. It would be tough to work and do that as well. I used Dr. Levy at Overlook Hospital in NJ. Excellent doctor.

I'm 6 weeks post op and had 5 prior surgeries. I'm very optomistic. However, based on research, the recovery period is very long - 12 to 18 months. Walking basically after about 12 weeks or so, depending on the how much work the surgeon has to do. The main issue is to get a doctor who has been shown to be successful with this surgery. I know that patients come from other countries to the doctor that I'm using. He has had 60+ surgeries with basically 1 failure. I am optomistic.

Hello, I will be having this surgery on Nov 6 2002. Any advice or words of wisdom on time away from work and rehab would be most appreciated! Any success stories out there? Linda