Daniella R. lives an active life from chasing her 3 kids, a new puppy and playing tennis. Unfortunately, last February she injured her knee. “I wish that I had a great story of how I tore my knee cartilage, but … while walking I planted my foot and my knee just turned. It is sort of embarrassing”, explained Daniella.
She knew that she sustained a serious knee injury and began the search for a Knee Specialist. She saw a bunch of doctors who gave her varying options of surgery from where they would either remove cartilage from another part of her knee or cartilage from a cadaver to make the repair, or performing microfracture surgery on her knee. The doctor explained that the microfracture procedure is where they would create tiny fractures in the underlying bone. She would need to have her leg up for 6 weeks, then she would be on crutches for an additional 6 weeks. She thought that there had to be another option. How could athletes tear their knee cartilage and return sooner than that?
She decided that it was worth it to make the commute from Long Island into Manhattan to get the opinion of a Knee Specialist that was using modern techniques to repair knee injuries. After doing research online and talking with family and friends, she read about how Dr. Steven Struhl uses ground breaking methods in repairing knee and shoulder injuries to get them back to their active lifestyles.
Daniella and her husband met with Dr. Struhl in May, and felt that her experience was completely different than her previous doctor visits regarding repairing her knee cartilage. “He did not treat me as a number and did a thorough evaluation. Dr. Struhl’s was different than anyone else and recommended a nanofracture surgery with stem cell therapy injection versus a microfracture.”, shared Daniella.
Nanofracture better than microfracture
Dr. Struhl explained, “Nanofracture surgery is the “modern” version of a microfracture procedure. The nanofracture technique is more precise by creating 1mm channels into the bone marrow, allowing a patient’s own stem cell to help grow tissue on the joint surface. This technique is less intrusive, safer, has a faster recovery, and is more durable. It is a better option than a microfracture surgery.”
Daniella and her husband decided to have Dr. Struhl perform her knee surgery using the nanofracture procedure. Surgery was performed on July 3rd as an out-patient, and Daniella could not believe that Dr. Struhl wanted her to walk on it right away. One month later she received a stem cell therapy injection to further help her recover and reduce the pain.
She followed Dr. Struhl’s recommendations and diligently went to PT. “My PT was shocked about how fast my recovery was. They told me that they have never seen someone heal that quickly from a articular cartilage knee injury like I had.”
“I am feeling stronger and doing more than I ever thought that I would be doing in a shorter time frame. Dr. Struhl is on the cutting edge of procedures and I feel that him using a newer procedure like a nanofacture and my own stem cells is the reason that I am back to chasing my kids. I cannot wait to hit the tennis courts again. It was so worth going into the city from Long Island.”