Good Correspondence with Dr. Dye - II

After my first correspondence with Dr. Dye, I still had questions. Here is my second email:

Dr. Dye,

1) You mention "multi factorial" and that you are addressing the synovitis component of my knee pain. What are the other factors do you feel have lent to my pain? I imagine the synovitis is a result of some other factor such as patellofemoral syndrome. Is this correct? My main concern is that once I am through the synovectomy and slowly on my way to recovery, what can I do to keep this from happening all over again? If I don't know what exactly caused this problem to begin with, what can I do differently in the future?

4) New question. What percentage of your patients are athletes compared to patients with degenerative issues due to age or poor mechanics? Do you see many patients similar to myself? If so, how many of them experience a full recovery?

Thank you for your quick response to my email. I appreciate you being open to answering my questions.

Alexandra

Dr. Dye's response:

We often don't know all the factors that contribute to kneecap pain, but excessive loading is common to all such knees. The most important thing following surgery is prevent excessive forces out of the envelope of load acceptance for an extended period of time. It takes a year to a year and a half to maximally heal a knee, typically. It also depends on the 3rd leg of the stool (Dr Dye says recovery is a three-legged stool, 1) surgery, 2) taking care of myself after surgery and 3) --the biology of your knee., including the extent of the pathology discovered and the effectiveness of your healing properties as encoded in your DNA. We won't know until we "cross that bridge" Most people 85- 90% do well.

4) about 50% and yes most improve substantially as a function of their unique biological circumstances.

Best wishes, Dr. Dye

I am impressed with Dr. Dye's response to my questions. Most doctors take quite some time to get back to you and when they do, the answers are even more vague than the ones I received from Dr. Dye. Still, he did answer the best way he could as a doctor and did not make any promises.