Arthosamid Injections for Knee Osteoarthritis

Dodgyknees99

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/728019#Comment_728019

Interesting. I know some people have very good responses. What sort of knee OA do you have? For me, its the patellofemoral joint, which I think is birth defect because its both knees, they are both about as bad as each other and one of the specialists said my patellofemoral joint was slightly dysplastic. In contrast my tibiofemoral joints, which is the bit that usually goes for people with knee OA are in the words of another specialist "in very good condition".

Another thing that makes me think the injection works better for tibiofemoral OA is the laughable inappropriateness of the rehab exercises on the arthosamid site. Squats, lunges and any sort of weighted exercise are a disaster for my sort of OA.

bambi45

Hello knee friends, I have been doing more research and came across radio frequency treatment . I believe they destroy the nerve by ablating the nerves that sends the pain singles to the brain .Again as with Arthrosamid, it isn’t permanent but may give relief for months maybe years . I would be interested to know if anyone with knee trouble has any experience of this treatment. Living in hope of avoiding TKR 🥴.

Dodgyknees99

As it is nearly 6 months since my Arthrosamid injection I thought I'd provide another update. For the first 3 or 4 months I saw virtually no improvement. Certainly when I saw the consultant after 3 months the change was very limited. However, over the past six weeks or so there has definitely been a very marked improvement.

For example, I did a 12km hike today with about 300m of ups and downs. I had no issue going up and coming down was considerably easier than even 2 weeks ago, which itself was an improvement on what I'd been able to do previously. I've found the same with cycling where I am now able to use much more force on the pedals than previously. My knee swelling has almost disappeared too and even at the end of my walk the knees are feeling a lot less stiff than before.

I am seeing the consultant in a few weeks and am now seriously weighing up whether replacement surgery is the best option.

Dodgyknees99

Further update. Although the Arthrosamid has undoubtedly improved my symptoms, it hasn't been by enough. Sure I can probably manage a decent walk once a week and I can go out on my mountain bike for an hour at a time without a problem, perhaps every other day, but its not enough. Other day to day things aren't great, going up an down stairs is still an issue, for example.

My consultant has persuaded me to have a Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy (ok I needed zero persuasion) in both knees because the damage is only really bad on the lateral facet of the patella. The middle isn't too bad and the medial bit is essentially factory fresh. In addition he is going to chop off the worst bits on the outer edge. There will still be a significant tilt on the patella, but by fixing the tracking, which is quite a bit out he will be able to reduce the pressure on the worst affected bits. If I need a replacement later (which is only likely to be a partial as the other compartments are in very good condition) then that should go better too because mechanically the knee should be working better.

Dodgyknees99

Had my operation yesterday. The surgeon only needed to to the tibial tubercle osteotomy, he said he would leave the petella facetectomy for the moment because the tracking was so far off, that the whole patella now fits inside the trochea groove rather than overlapping as previously and the worn out lateral bit should be thoroughly unloaded now. One day on there is virtually no pain even being up and around.

An operation is not something to be taken lightly, even if this knee recovers I need the same procedure on the other one. Nearly a year on from the Arthrosamid injection I think it did work to reduce the inflammation which definitely helped with day to day tasks, but not for recreational exercise activities, as evidenced by my need to use an ebike and retire my manual bikes. And now the arthritic part of the patella is unloaded and not having had a particularly invasive operation on the patella the Arthrosamid can come into its own, so I can still see value in having the procedure.

trufflehound

Hi everyone, so glad I found this thread, so much good information.

I`m a 77yr old man, had OA for the last 25yrs, had to give up all my

main sporting hobbies, tennis, squash, running, cycling, and others,

still maintained my fitness mainly through spinning, last few years

have been a struggle, finding it increasingly hard to walk any distance.

Have an appointment with the Consultant end of June about TKR,

but was wondering if at my age Athrosamid might be a better option.

If I go the TKR route I would need both knees done, that would take

at least a year plus recovery, a daunting task at my age, a lot to ponder on

noddingtonpete

Hello @trufflehound and welcome to the Online Community.

A lot to think about but have a look through our information about knee replacements which hopefully will give you a better picture when you have your appointment.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/surgery/knee-replacement-surgery/

If you need anything else just ask.

Best wishes

Peter

Dodgyknees99

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/734570#Comment_734570

What have you got to lose? If you are worried about TKR, have the Arthrosamid injection and if you don't see an improvement after 6 months get the TKR. My only regret with my treatment is that nobody noticed my patella misalignment/arthritis years ago, I'd have done the same things 10 years ago had I known without reservation.