Robotic Knee Surgery

MAKOplasty might, down the road, be another way to keep running.

A client asked me this week "Hows your knee doing ?" and then wondered if I knew about MAKOplasty.

The answer was NO but after a quick check it definitely has potential.


Thus far I'm following the plan I laid out for myself in early July. This first week in September should see another 1/4 mile step in run distance to reach 3 miles. After some runs I've hurt but not too badly and I always ice after running.

The exact routine is:

• walk for 1/4 mile starting very slowly (2 mph)
• Run starting slowly at 5mph and gradually building up to current self-set limit of 7.5mph
  
• last 1/4 mile of run is cool down coming back down to 5 mph
  
• walk for 3 minutes slowing from 3 miles at start of walking down to 2 mph before stopping
• home without stopping to shower
• post-exercise glass of rice milk with a teaspoon of soy protein added
• sit-down and ice for 10 minutes, stop icing for 5 minutes then ice for another 10 minutes.
  
• finally it's time to shower

The potential attraction of MAKOplasty is that it could deal minimally with arthritis inside the knee rather than a full knee replacement which would mean saying good bye to running.

However any serious surgery needs some lengthy consideration. While the MAKOplasty surgery makes it sound as if the hole made is tiny, this video of the procedure shows that in fact the knee is pretty much opened up completely. It's a great video and worth watching all the way through to and including the final Q + A.

More videos, admittedly from Mako but nevertheless interesting.

Of course it's not perfect ! This report by Dr Saff says that the pain has gone but he still can't run. Bad news.

The picture of Dr Saff shows him with a HeavyHand in each hand. Years ago I used to run with a 4 pound HeavyHand in each hand. Clarence Bass adopted HeavyHands a long time ago.