Donor collagen
Today marks 6 weeks since I had the ATF and calcaneal ligaments reconstructed. I also had donor collagen added to the opposite side of my talus where the lax ligaments had allowed the bones to rub and wear the talus away.
I hadn’t updated my blog in awhile. Surgery went very well, no allergic reactions this time. My doc said the ATF was over 50% avulsed with really only scar tissue holding it on.
I went home in my Vacocast I had left over from my Achilles fun and was told to flex and extend my foot, but have no side-to-side motion. I was told to wear the boot only to protect it when going out. I ditched crutches for the iwalk-free and put many miles on that thing, I wish I’d recorded how many, it was a lot.
Doc took an x-ray of the donor cartilage area the day after surgery. He took another at 2 weeks. You could see a dramatic difference. It’s amazing to see cartilage growing back. He took another x-ray at 4 weeks and told me to start walking on it 2 weeks early.
I’m very grateful for the donor cartilage. I understand it’s juvenile cartilage and some family had to make a very tough decision, for that I will forever owe them a debt. My doc said a year ago this would not have possible as they didn’t have the procedure. From what I understand of the procedure they simply apply biometric glue in to the void of the bone, then sprinkle cartilage powder on to the glue. Over the course of 6 weeks it grows back to fill the void as if it was never there.
My doc also told me I heal better and faster than anyone he has ever seen come through his podiatry practice. He told me I have no frame of reference to appreciate it, but that I should be thankful for that as well. That may be the case, but I know he also stays up on the latest research and is constantly looking at better ways to do it. I know for my surgery they took blood, centrifuged it, and applied blood cells to the incision areas to help it heal faster, I’m sure everyone doesn’t get that.
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I hope your donor collagen works better than the centrifuged blood — aka PRP — has worked in randomized trials. At least on ATRs, it did no better than saline solution. Much more expensive, though.
The donor collagen has grown back and filled in the areas of my missing cartilage already, it was mostly filled in after two week by xray. Pretty amazing stuff.
I have no idea if the centrifuged blood helped or not, I would have said go for it despite trials. I have seen studies where centrifuged blood has helped paralysis patients.
I went for the PRP myself (3 shots @$400) — though that was just before the RCT results came out. To be fair, my OS told me that there was no good evidence that it helped, but that it “seemed logical”. Maybe especially with AT stuff, I’ve come to believe that there’s a huge gap between Evidence-Based Medicine and Logic-Based Medicine…