Legacy of Microfracture Surgery in the NBA

[FAH1223]

 

[UpAndComing]

Interesting topic

It's a shame. Alot of Doctors really do "Practice" medicine, and use people as guinea pigs

 

[Cladyclad]

Damn

 

[Regular_P]

Jason Kidd is another guy who had microfracture surgery in 2004. He made a few more All-Star teams but his numbers kept declining after having the surgery.

It was always hold your breath time whenever a guy got this surgery. Amar'e is the only guy who seemed relatively unaffected afterwards. Just about everyone else immediately lost their athleticism after the procedure.

 

[Osmar]

As soon as I read the title, I said to myself " do they do that surgery anymore"? Good info

 

[firemanBk]

It's a bit misleading to say microfracture ended their career
What ended their career was what was causing them to have microfracture surgery in the first place. It's a surgery used to replace missing cartilage in the knee. So they were going to be fukked regardless.
Did the surgery speed things up in terms of ending their career? Honestly kind of impossible to know
This is basically what Lonzo is dealing with rn. He had missing cartilage in his knee and has been out 2+ years. They had to do some experimental shyt cause they don't perform micro fracture on athletes anymore and they're not sure that shyt is even gonna work.

 

[Shadow King]

Amare being so much younger helped him. Everybody else was 29-32 which is the back nine of your athletic prime (not your overall prime).

 

[MurderToCassette]

Remember all my favorite players immediately got the flat top after they got this surgery and never recovered

Amare was the exception to the rule

 

[jwinfield]

Amare being so much younger helped him. Everybody else was 29-32 which is the back nine of your athletic prime (not your overall prime).

IIRC, Steve Kerr who was the GM for most of Amare's time with the Suns said that with the condition of his knee, he'd fall off hard by 30.

 

[hashmander]

what replaced it? talking about it like it was some hack surgery when in reality the condition that caused the need for surgery is a difficult one to treat. what are the advances in surgery that are producing better outcomes for athletes in similar situations?

 

[beenz]

Didn't they stop using this procedure years ago?

 

[HollywoodP]

what replaced it? talking about it like it was some hack surgery when in reality the condition that caused the need for surgery is a difficult one to treat. what are the advances in surgery that are producing better outcomes for athletes in similar situations?

Arthroscopic abrasion arthroplasty
This surgery is best recommended to a younger athlete who has a simple cartilage tear or hole. It will usually not be successful for a patient who is older or a patient who has a significantly damaged knee. In this procedure as opposed to drilling holes in the bone, burrs are used to scrape away damaged cartilage and “scrape” the bone. As with the microfracture procedure, the hope is to cause the blood to clot and turn into a scaffold from which cartilage cells can develop.
Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI)
This is a newer procedure. It requires two surgical procedures. The first is an arthroscopic procedure which takes a small piece of articular cartilage from the patient’s knee to separate out chondrocytes (cartilage building cells). These cells are then multiplied or expanded in numbers in the lab. In most cases, six to eight weeks later, in the second procedure, the more numerous cells are replanted into the cartilage defect.

 

[Marc Spector]

Interesting topic

It's a shame. Alot of Doctors really do "Practice" medicine, and use people as guinea pigs

that’s the catch with sports. these franchises are desperate to get these guys back on the court. Even if it means going with some rare and experimental surgery that really isnt designed for humans that are NBA sized and have to move like they do

 

[Rev]

“Microfracture” became one of the most horrifying words associated with the league back in the 2000s

 

[MorePower]

I know someone who had 2 microfracture surgeries in the last 5 years, one in each hip. Doctors definitely still do this.