Any experience with knock-knee surgery? Or knock knees as adult?

[Anonymous]

My son’s orthopedist is recommending knock-knee surgery for him while he’s going through his growth spurt. Basically, they insert something into the growth plate that inhibits the growth on the short side; then pull it a few months later when the imbalance has been corrected. I have never heard of this before and am wondering if anyone has any experience. Or also experiences as a knock knees adult? Son expected to be 6’+ so they say that’s a factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son’s orthopedist is recommending knock-knee surgery for him while he’s going through his growth spurt. Basically, they insert something into the growth plate that inhibits the growth on the short side; then pull it a few months later when the imbalance has been corrected. I have never heard of this before and am wondering if anyone has any experience. Or also experiences as a knock knees adult? Son expected to be 6’+ so they say that’s a factor.

I was about to post exactly this - I have never heard of this and don't know anyone who has done it and my doctor wants my ten year old daughter to do it next week (ahh! I need to research!)


If anyone has experience with pros/cons - or if you OP went through with it - I would love to hear about it.

[Anonymous]

Maybe this is just not that common?

[Anonymous]

My son had this surgery -
His specialist was from Sinai in Baltimore.

I would go up there for a 2nd opinion:
https://www.limblength.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son’s orthopedist is recommending knock-knee surgery for him while he’s going through his growth spurt. Basically, they insert something into the growth plate that inhibits the growth on the short side; then pull it a few months later when the imbalance has been corrected. I have never heard of this before and am wondering if anyone has any experience. Or also experiences as a knock knees adult? Son expected to be 6’+ so they say that’s a factor.

I was about to post exactly this - I have never heard of this and don't know anyone who has done it and my doctor wants my ten year old daughter to do it next week (ahh! I need to research!)
If anyone has experience with pros/cons - or if you OP went through with it - I would love to hear about it.

Our initial orthopedist was very aggressive with scheduling surgery. I am uncertain from the post what the surgery is that your dr is recommending and your child's specific profile - but please get a 2nd opinion (if you have not already done so). For my son's situation, they wanted to do the surgery in certain age range but I would assume it was tied to growth.
For my son they broke the femur, repositioned it and inserted a pin. Recovery was 6 weeks on crutches followed by a bunch of PT.
6 months later they did the 2nd leg and 6 months later removed the pins.

[Anonymous]

My daughter had it done. It's not possible to have it corrected as an adult - so you do need to decide. The reason it works is because they are going through a growth spurt and they use that to their advantage. The first surgery my daughter stayed overnight and it was a little worse than I had expected. Because it's both knees, she used a bedpan, etc and I felt like I had underestimated how hard it was going to be. She was only down for a couple of days and then fine. The second surgery to remove the plates was easier and she came home the same day.
I am glad we had it done.
We got second opinions and some said it was cosmetic and others said it would help joints in the future. I wasn't able to find any solid research but this was a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son’s orthopedist is recommending knock-knee surgery for him while he’s going through his growth spurt. Basically, they insert something into the growth plate that inhibits the growth on the short side; then pull it a few months later when the imbalance has been corrected. I have never heard of this before and am wondering if anyone has any experience. Or also experiences as a knock knees adult? Son expected to be 6’+ so they say that’s a factor.

I was about to post exactly this - I have never heard of this and don't know anyone who has done it and my doctor wants my ten year old daughter to do it next week (ahh! I need to research!)
If anyone has experience with pros/cons - or if you OP went through with it - I would love to hear about it.

Our initial orthopedist was very aggressive with scheduling surgery. I am uncertain from the post what the surgery is that your dr is recommending and your child's specific profile - but please get a 2nd opinion (if you have not already done so). For my son's situation, they wanted to do the surgery in certain age range but I would assume it was tied to growth.
For my son they broke the femur, repositioned it and inserted a pin. Recovery was 6 weeks on crutches followed by a bunch of PT.
6 months later they did the 2nd leg and 6 months later removed the pins.

This does not sound like genu valgum (knock knees). They would not break a femur for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son’s orthopedist is recommending knock-knee surgery for him while he’s going through his growth spurt. Basically, they insert something into the growth plate that inhibits the growth on the short side; then pull it a few months later when the imbalance has been corrected. I have never heard of this before and am wondering if anyone has any experience. Or also experiences as a knock knees adult? Son expected to be 6’+ so they say that’s a factor.

I was about to post exactly this - I have never heard of this and don't know anyone who has done it and my doctor wants my ten year old daughter to do it next week (ahh! I need to research!)
If anyone has experience with pros/cons - or if you OP went through with it - I would love to hear about it.

Our initial orthopedist was very aggressive with scheduling surgery. I am uncertain from the post what the surgery is that your dr is recommending and your child's specific profile - but please get a 2nd opinion (if you have not already done so). For my son's situation, they wanted to do the surgery in certain age range but I would assume it was tied to growth.
For my son they broke the femur, repositioned it and inserted a pin. Recovery was 6 weeks on crutches followed by a bunch of PT.
6 months later they did the 2nd leg and 6 months later removed the pins.

This does not sound like genu valgum (knock knees). They would not break a femur for that.

Sorry for the confusion - for my child "knock knees" was what was observed - but the actual medical situation was de-rotation of the femur

[Anonymous]

OP here! I happened to check in here and I’m glad I did. We did the surgery, coincidentally at Sinai in Baltimore. Overall a very good experience. Kid was up and about almost immediately with some soreness but never took anything stronger than a couple of Advil. No crutches needed. Our first follow up isn’t for several more weeks so I don’t know how the correction is going yet. I hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this input! I wonder why this isn’t more common. We had the surgery too and agree it was more of a struggle afterward than I expected during the first couple of days but after exactly two weeks she was back to normal. Hope it works.

[Anonymous]

Hi there, how is your son and daughter doing now? Is there any pain after surgery?