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November, 2024

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Chondromalacia patella

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Getshifty
Posts: 347 - Karma: 2,126
Yo,

I’ve been dealing with chondromalacia patella (damage to cartilage under knee cap) since last spring. Pain started after a minor knee cap subluxation, no swelling of the knee and mri showed all ligaments looked intact.

I’ve been doing allot of biking / PT to help recover from it and can MTB, hike, and hit the tramp without pain. It feels about 85% recovered, but with ski season starting it’s not quite recovered enough to ski like it want. Pain flared up last week after 3 days of hard skiing.

Just wondering if you or anyone you know has had experience with this sort of injury and if / how they recovered from it? I know cartilage can’t repair its self but I know damage cartilage can become asymptomatic overtime in some cases.


Haven’t had many issues with my knees in the past, but this one seems hard to come back from and hoping I can keep skiing for a couple more years as I’m only 22.

Wish you all strong and healthy knees 🙏
Dec 2 2024 3:19PM
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Rparr
Posts: 5602 - Karma: 46,273
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
Dec 2 2024 3:58PM
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Getshifty
Posts: 347 - Karma: 2,126
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.
Dec 2 2024 4:52PM
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