Microfracture Surgery
What is Microfracture surgery?
Microfracture surgery is essentially a surgical technique for cartilage repair. The procedure works by creating tiny fractures in the underlying bone in the knee, which then causes new cartilage to develop.
Microfracture surgery was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Dr. Richard Steadman. Through steady research and testing (with horses), Steadman’s once “controversial” procedure has made its way into the microcosm of professional sports. In general, the procedure has had a high success rate, but because of the natural decline in an athlete’s performance, it’s tough to evaluate the rate of success with some older athletes that have had the procedure. While it’s concerning as to why younger athletes need Microfracture surgery to begin with, the younger an athlete is when he/she has the surgery the better.
In October of 2005, Suns star Amare Stoudamire became one of the highest profile players in professional sports to have Microfracture surgery. Stoudamire returned to the court in March of 2006 (6 months later), but due to stiffness in both knees, Stoudamire and his doctors decided to delay the stud’s return until the start of the 2006-2007 season (roughly 7 months after that). Stoudamire did in fact return to his old form during that 2006-2009 season (roughly one full calendar year after having his Microfracture surgery. Stoudamire is truly a success story.
Jason Kidd, Greg Oden, Zach Randolph, Steve Yzerman, John Stockton, Kenyon Martin, and Antonio McDyess have all had Microfracture surgery and just about all of those athletes have been able to return, or at least near, their pre-surgery form.
Professional athletes that have not had the same success include: Brian Grant, Chris Webber, Allan Houston and Penny Hardaway. And Tracy McGrady has recently had the procedure, but his return won’t be until the 2009-2010 season, so time will tell in his case.
Microfracture procedures are not that common in the NFL just yet (at least when it comes to impact fantasy players), but Saints WR Marques Colston reportedly had Microfracture surgery in January of 2009, so time will if Colston regain his elite form. The same goes for Saints RB Reggie Bush, who also had the surgery back in December of 2008. It’s worth noting that Colston’s procedure was thought to be somewhat minor — The receiver reportedly had a small hole in his kneecap, so our guess is that Colston will recover much faster than most.
Details of Microfracture surgery: Via arthroscopy, the surgeon creates tiny fractures in the bones (using an awl). Bone marrow and blood, which contain stem cells, seep out of the tiny fractures and this creates a blood clot. The blood clot then releases cartilage-building cells. The human body treats the microfractures (created by the surgeon) as bodily injuries, which is why the knee produces new/replacement cartilage.
Microfracture surgery is actually considered relatively minor as far as procedures go… it’s the restrictions that are placed on the patient during the recovery time frame. For optimal re-growth, patients usually need to be on crutches for four to six weeks and sometimes longer. Patients often feel that their knee(s) is doing fine and that they can skip extremely important recovery steps, and often times patients start running and jumping and even start playing sports before the knee(s) is ready.
Older patients, overweight patients and patients with significant knee degeneration issues have far less success with Microfracture surgery.
Will professional football players have as much success with Microfracture surgery as NBA players have had? Will football players need more recovery time due to the grueling nature of football? Time will tell — Marques Colston and Reggie Bush are two of the NFL’s highest profile subjects to have the procedure and their first seasons back from the surgery will be this 2009. We will report back after 2009 plays out. Stoudamire wasn’t ready after 6 months of recovery and Colston will be roughly 6-7 months removed from Microfracture surgery come August — But, again remember that Colston’s procedure might have been less intense and we might have to look at his case a bit differently when reflecting back. In case you were wondering, Bush will be roughly 7-8 months removed from surgery come August.
