Osteochondral defects anyone?

Diagnosed 2 months ago with 8x 8 OCD lesion..went to 3 specialists including top ortho at hospital for special surgery in NYC. Stage 3 lesion. Basically had symptoms for last year. Still running 40-50 mpw. Had prp last week. Still running. All recommended microfracture surgery. The prospect of not running after surgery never even entered the conversation. The ortho at HSS is a leading expert on OCD lesions. My issue is that I cannot find anyone who is running with this injury. Pain/ discomfort for 10 mins and then I loosen out. The issue for me is 6-10 weeks recovery after surgery as that seems like an eternity to me.

Have you looked into De novo grafts? Microfracture may work for yours as it is smaller. Microfracture can also fail b/c it produces fibrocartilage which seems to break down over time. I kept running on mine, and now I have a bone cyst under the defect. so, i'm scheduled for a bone and cartilage graft soon. I'll post back on my results. I've barely been able to run at all (may 10 miles per month) and hopeful that this surgery may fix the injury so I can one day run without pain.

The NIH studied glucosamine and chondroitin for 6 and 18 months and found no benefit in a large sample. But that doesn't mean hyaline cartilage can't grow back over longer periods or in some people. My thinking on this is also that they studied only supplements, not the real thing, kind of like fish oil vs fish for heart benefits. Plenty of fresh cartilage in a chicken.

I've mistrusted orthopedists ever since the renowned Stan James tried to sell me surgery to prevent the "compartment syndrome" behind my recurring MTSF's.

Find a new doctor and get many opinions....I saw 3 people after my MRI

I had an issue in my toe 9 months ago...had a 20mm defect by the mid joint of the big toe

Once the swelling went down, thank you meloxicam, I could play hockey but not run.

Decided on OATS procedure with an allograft. Didn't want to have another hole in my foot that needed to heal. I was off crutches in 6 days and currently in a walking boot. Hoping to move to a sofft/surgical shoe after week 2.

My podiatrist is a decent athlete around my age and most of my questions were about what I could do post surgery. If recovery continues well I will be running by New Year's Day with a goal of being back up to 50mpw by this time next year (I am starting from square one again)

Good luck don't believe everything they say. My original diagnosis was 4+ weeks in a cast....

an update:

I did the surgery a little over a month ago. Yes, being non-weight-bearing sucks, but it got to the point where I had to bite the bullet and do it. Losing running fitness was no longer a huge issue b/c the pain had gotten to where I was limited to about 10 miles per month anyway (no joke).

fortunately, I found some other activities, but I miss running like crazy.

so, anyway, he did a Brostrum to fix damaged ligaments, removed the cystic bone, removed osteophytes that had grown around the injury, filled in the area where he removed cystic bone with healthy bone, trimmed lose pieces of cartilage and filled the cartilage lesion with a DeNovo graft.

the downside to this procedure is waiting for the cartilage to mature. He suggested waiting as long as possible (e.g. up to 2 years) to get back to running, simply to let the juvenile cartilage mature. However, some people have resumed running in 6 months with no problems.

prognosis: cautious, but optimistic. ready to be off of crutches already!

Orthodox find any way they can for you NOT to run

Get more opinions

actually, I ignored the first orthopedist, continued to run, and made the injury a more difficult fix because of this.

I went to 4 different MDs and did my own research (lots of it), tried the alternatives (PT, chiropractic, PRP, even stem cell tx) - wasted a hell of a lot of money.

But, it was worth doing the research b/c I found a BETTER procedure than what the first ortho proposed, and the ortho doing it; top notch.

Believe me, I am NOT a fan of orthopedists and definitely not surgery, so I put it off for 2 years. but, there is a point where surgery is necessary. When you go from 70 mpw pain free to "I can't even walk without limping because I ran a whole 5 miles this week", suddenly surgery doesn't seem like a bad option. And when running becomes excruciating stopping is a good idea. I have every intention to pick it back up later.

This last post brought tears to my eyes because this is now me. Any update? Back to running? Thanks