SYNISC

Post Date: 11/28/06 9:44 am Hi, I just came from the orthopedic surgeon and was told that both of my knees are shot. Because I am only 51 and still have a considerable amount of weight to lose the surgeon is going to try Synisc wihich is injected on three seperate visits. It is supposed to give relief for at least 6 months. Has anyone tried this therapy? If so please liet me know what your outcome is. Thanks. Jeanne

Hello Jeanne: I was in a car accident two years ago and hurt both of my knees, I was 56 yr old at the time ... I had 2 surgeries in May of 2005 (arthroscopic) to clean up torn lateral meniscuses on both knees and have serious degenerative rhumatoid arthritus that started with the accident and continues to degrade at a fast pace. The surgeries did LITTLE to help the pain when standing and or walking distances. I also was overweight which did not help the situation and subsequently went for gastric bypass surgery May 1st of 2006 ... the knees being one of the big issues that I had hoped to minimize the problems. It has gotten slightly better but is still painfull most of the time every day!! I have also had 2 sets of Synvisc injections (series of 3 each time) in both knees the worst one is the left knee and it had 2 sets of injections about 6-8 months apart ... I really feel that it did very little to relieve the pain and reduce the symptons ... I am NOT convinced that it helped. I will probably have to go within a year for a knee replacement on my left knee but not looking forward to the surgery and the recovery time so I am delaying it as long as I can. The only thing that does help is for Cortisone shots which will last up to 2 months of pain relief. I also am not able to take the anti-inflamitory drugs that most normal people would use due to the bypass surgery where it would hurt the new stomach and intestines and could cause bleeding internally. Its a really lousy situation ... except for that ... I am doing so GREAT after bypass with 110 lbs of loss with about 80 more to go to reach goal ... lots of energy and able to do exercise (biking-long distance) that is not stressfull on the knees. Thank G-d for that!! Hope that this answers some of your questions. Michael