Let's try to put things in perspective. For one thing Amar'e actually had significant deterioration of his Cartilage such that he required Micro Fracture surgery to try and create new Cartilage. That's a very serious stage of knee damage. Melo having a debridement isn't good, but it's not yet at the level of Amar'e.
These interventions might be expected to decrease the mechanical stress on cartilage, thus lessening cartilage loss, and to prevent the release of yet more fragments, thereby interrupting a vicious circle of joint damage and synovitis.1. LAVAGE:
It removes debris such as free microscopic or macroscopic fragments of cartilage, calcium phosphate crystals, and others chemical products that may induce synovitis, a likely source of pain.
Lavage is common to all other techniques.
2. DÉBRIDEMENT:
It consists in smoothing rough, fibrillated articular and removal of torn menisci, shaving tibial-spine osteophytes and loose body removal that interfere with the motion of the joint, and minor synovectomy removing inflamed synovium.
The procedure became increasingly popular in the 1980s and 1990s with improved arthroscopic instrumentation and surgical technique as well as the minimal morbidity and swift recovery after the procedure.
There are 2 more serious operations to try and repair damage which is ARTHROSCOPIC ABRASION ARTHROPLASTY and MICROFRACTURE. It seems that in Melo's case they think he doesn't have such a serious knee damage that it would require those more drastic steps. My guess is that Melo should be fine but obviously he's experiencing the beginnings of knee issues but that doesn't mean that he's soon to be in need of a major surgery to repair loss of cartilage. It could be a very minor level of damage and still require his knee to be cleaned up. People need to relax on this idea that Melo is now going to be on minutes restrictions and needing to have Microfracture surgery. We don't know that yet.
One thing in Melo's favor is that his game isn't really about constant high jumping. He's got a pretty low impact game. His minutes should naturally be reduced or be given days off as he moves along in his career and we add more talent to the team so that he's not needed to log heavy minutes.
I have to edit my post in light of what Phil just said about Melo: The time table of 4-6 months indicates to me that Melo's Knee issue is of a more serious nature than was 1st suggested. It seems to me that they are describing something like ARTHROSCOPIC ABRASION ARTHROPLASTY:
Popularised by Lanny L. JOHHNSON in the 1980’s , it is a superficial abrasion performed to stimulate repair in the area of sclerotic lesions. Open surgical drilling procedures (PRIDIE) have been advocated to reach the blood supply and the plupotential cells to stimulate fibrocartilage growth. Rather than drill holes , mulitple superficial dimples are created with a motorized burr. This abrasion of sclerotic bone leads to bleeding and formation of a blood clot that attaches to anf fills the defect of abraded areas and will transform in fibrocartilage by 4 to 6 months.Patient have to walk with non weight bearing crutches during two months and malalignement is a contraindication (limiting patient selection).
2/18/2015 11:48 AM