Severe Arthritis in 16 year old

Hi I am a mom of a 16 year old daughter. She had a bucket handle tear of her meniscus when she was 13 y.o. They could not repair her meniscus and had to remove it. She had continued problems, her latest x-rays and MRI from 12-06 showed severe arthritis, bone spurs, and an OCD lesion and a baker's cyst. The doctor also ordered an x-ray of her good knee that also showed arthritis. Art first they wanted to do a meniscal transplant and know want to do an osteotomy. They are concerned with her severe arthritis progession within the last 2 years and tell me that the amount of arthritis she has for her age is very abnromal. I am very concerned about doing the right thing for her.

 

Has anyone heard of a case of the severe arthritis in a 16 year old, and does anyone know anything about an osteotomy.

 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am concerned of why this is happening and doing the right thing for her.

She has a long life ahead of her and I do not want to mess her knee up anymore then it already is!

Please Help

Worried Mom!!!

They have not done any blood work or biopsies, the dr. however did state that he thought that maybe this was just her or maybe early arthritis runs in my family. No one thought I now of besides myself has early arthirits. I am not sure that mine is as early as my daughters. I have early DJD and synovial cysts in three areas of my lumbar spine, but the dr. did not think that the two were related. Should I ask for blood tests or biopsies? I just have had so many conflicting opinions from osteotomy to meniscus transplant and one person did recommend seeing a rheumotologists but when I asked the dr whois doing the surgery he did not think that it was necessary.

I really appreciate any help or opinions, I am just concerned about making the wrong choice for her and messing up her knee for the rest of her life. I also do not want her in constant pain.

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for your help!!!!!!
Worried Mom

Good Morning,

I am Kitt and here is some information regarding osteotomy. I am a nurse and we have an excellent orthopaedic surgeon at our hospital who has performed this type of surgery many times. As with any surgery every case is different but most people do well.

An osteotomy is an elective surgical procedure, performed under general anesthesia, in which a bone is cut or a portion is taken out in order to fix a bad bone alignment, to shorten or lengthen the bone, or to correct damage due to arthritis. An osteotomy is needed when a bone has healed badly or crooked, or when a deformity is caused by disease or disorder.

I know it must be very hard to watch your child go through this pain.

The members that posted before me gave you great advice. Now you need to be sure you know exactly what the physician is planning, the recovery time which will include physical therapy and how your daughter feels about her disease. I cannot vote for or against surgery. I would leave that to the people with experience.

Just a note on Juvenile Arthritis ..........there are many diferent kinds of arithritis in children and it can start very young in their lives. I had a cousin that 's 4 years old had JRA.

The most prevalent form of juvenile arthritis is juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, or JRA. It affects approximately 50,000 children in the United States.

Bless you and lots of support.

Hello, I too have a "granddaughter" with JRA and very very ill. She can hardly get off bed in the mornings. She is in so much pain, knees, hands and now her jaws. Do you know what the exercise is for these young kids with this illness? She is also putting on a lot of weight and most of it is from all the drugs she is prescribed on. I am so worried about her and depressed as a grandma because I wish I knew what to do to help ease the pain especially when I walk to her house a block away and see her tears running down her cheeks of the pain. My son who is also very sick of Arthritis says she will need knee replacement by the time she is 25.. Please help. :(

Post Edited (Ave) : 10/11/2013 12:50:43 PM (GMT-6)

Hello Ave, I feel deeply for you in your situation. Watching people you love suffer so much must be dreadful. I have suffered with RA in my jaw so I know what your grandchild is going through. There is no pain like it. Fortunately I no longer suffer from it because as soon as it starts now I get an injection of steroids into the joint and the pain disappears almost immediately. The last one I had was in March and its still working perfectly. First I am given a local anaesthetic and then when I am numb they give me the steroid injection. I don't feel anything at all (except the wonderful absence of pain). It is done in the radiography department where they are looking at x-rays of the jaw while they work. It helps to make sure that they are getting the right spot because the joint is small and a bit complicated. I hope this is a bit of help. Good luck, Neenaa.