Chondromalacia patella

I've had it for 10 years. I developed it around 23 years of age. It seems to come and go for me. Same as yours, just pain with no swelling.

I wish I had an answer for you, I just get my legs as strong as they can each off season and then deal with the ups and downs of pains throughout the season. I definitely can't ski 5 full days a week anymore like I used to.

I believe there is a surgery where they go in and smooth out the cartilage, but my knee doc told me it's not a good solution for young people like us, it's mainly for much older folk and more severe cases. Because it leaves you with less cartilage

**This post was edited on Dec 2nd 2024 at 3:59:15pm

RparrI've had it for 10 years. I developed it around 23 years of age. It seems to come and go for me. Same as yours, just pain with no swelling.

I wish I had an answer for you, I just get my legs as strong as they can each off season and then deal with the ups and downs of pains throughout the season. I definitely can't ski 5 full days a week anymore like I used to.

I believe there is a surgery where they go in and smooth out the cartilage, but my knee doc told me it's not a good solution for young people like us, it's mainly for much older folk and more severe cases. Because it leaves you with less cartilage

**This post was edited on Dec 2nd 2024 at 3:59:15pm

Appreciate the response, sound like i'm in it for the long haul which I kinda figured was the case. Been working on strengthening the injured side, definitely a lot of weakness in the hip / glute on that side from not being able to properly load it for the past half a year.

And ya there's not any great surgery options, seems like the two major types are to go in a clean / remove damaged cartilage, or to replace the damaged cartilage with a graft like in OATS / MACI. But none of those seem to be super successful and have long recovery times.

Just came across this I have recently done something pretty similar. In October had a small fall while skiing and tweaked my knee a bit (got it on video) was in a decent amount of pain when it happened and it swelled almost immediately. Turns out my shin and thigh bone impacted. After MRI and stuff all ligaments were fine but the articular cartilage on my femur had been damaged.

Few weeks later while I was still limping around the damaged bit of cartilage came loose and was floating around in my knee getting stuck in places and locking my knee. I needed surgery to remove the loose bit and during the surgery they trimmed the cartilage to make the joint a bit smoother (I was 24 at the time) I have photos from inside my knee and what it all looked like.

I have been recovering from the surgery ever since and had a couple of doctors look at it but they all said its not possible to get back to 100% again with an articular cartilage defect. As you said the best they can do it fill the gaps with OATS / MACI but not sure about these in the long term. Currently I still have a smaller piece of cartilage loose in my knee that the couldn't get out last time and I need another surgery to remove that this year. I'm still deciding if I should get them to take a biopsy to have MACI or see if I can get on with it as it is/wait and see if I can get any fibro cartilage in place of it naturally.

In my opinion for your situation I would leave it alone surgically and just work on physio and strength training to get back to 99% of where you were. I've heard that turmeric and curcumin supplements can help with cartilage repair. I wish I had something more positive to add for you but at least you know your not the only one.

I thought I tore something in my knee last summer but had this. Healed lretty good but either not totally or still doing something that triggers it. Def sucks. I dont think mine was as bad as it good be but was hard to walk for a min.

Knee injuries suck, especially with what we like to do. Hope it heals well and fast snd yoi can get to 100% or close soon!