High Tibial Osteotomy

I am currently 23 years old and I have had 6 knee surgeries. I was 22 years old when I had my High tibial osteotomy.My intial injury I tore my ACL. MCL and Meniscus playing soccer. My first surgeon replaced my ACL but did not fix meniscus. He ended up putting my ACL to far forward, he didn’t listen to me for over a year and it caused severe damage to my meniscus. By the time I switched surgeons and they went in to fix the ACL they realized I lost 80% of my meniscus. I then got a meniscus transplant which worked for awhile but then I started to have meniscus pain. I had a Knee scope and cleaning that did not help my pain. After a few months my knee would give out and I would have stabbing pain on my medial meniscus. It got so bad I could no longer walk. That surgeon said he had come to the end of his specialty. I switched to UCSF and they found my meniscus was popping out and I was smashing it. My medial meniscus had always been a problem so they decided to do a High tibial osteotomy. I had that done on 12/28/09 and then had the plate removal done 12/29/10. The osteotomy was extremely painful and took me a long time to recover from. I was doing pretty well I had some foot problems until I had the hardware removed as soon as I came out I had foot pain and by the next day I could not move it without screaming out in pain. My foot now inverts so my doctor sent me to a podiatrist to make me an orthotic. But this has not worked when they corrected my foot problem it flared up my medial meniscus pain and now I have problems walking do to my knee and foot. My podiatrist has done many corrections and is now creating a new orthotic but is unsure she can correct the problem. My surgeon told me that she overcorrected my osteotomy on purpose to take as much pressure off my medial meniscus. But now I am left with hip, knee and foot problems. I am entering into a major strengthening program and I have done lots of therapy. They said maybe they can get me 20% better. My question is do I have an intolerable valgus alignment? I think they overcorrected too much and know it is putting too much pressure on my other joints. I am 23 years old and I have no quality of life. I am realist I know I won’t be pain free but I just want to be able to walk. Has anyone had problems with their osteotomy and can the redo the alignment? Any advice would help I feel lost I trust my surgeon she is really talented I just wish she had not overcorrected.

You say you had hto in January, I am having it done on March 7th. I am wondering what you went through? How long did you spend in the hospital? How bad was the pain? I would love to hear from anyone who had the hto. I am a 41 year old female and am scared to death. Thank you so much! Feel free to email me at

I am 24 years old and I am bowlegged due to rickets that I had as a child. This causes alot of pain on both knees. I just wanted to know if anyone has had a leg straightening surgery because I would like some info. I'm hoping that surgery will reduce my knee pain.

I'm having an oseotomy next month and have to decide if I want an external fixator instead of the internal hardware ie..plate and screws.... would appreciate hearing from others that have been given this choice. I'm having trouble with the thought of having to turn bolts through my leg. My Dr. thinks I'll get over it once it's done.

I (33 years old) wrote a little under three months ago and I went through with the surgery a maque (I learned how to spell it) tibial osteotomy 9 weeks ago. Things have been progressing well. As of 2 weeks ago the x-rays showed that I had not fused completely (est was 10-12 weeks) but I think that is changing because I know how my leg feels. I am down to a shorter knee immobilizer and started formal PT last week. I use one crutch when not in my immobilizer. My quads are completely gone but with losts of hard work they will return soon. So far so good and I think it was the right move to get me back to sports and away from a TKR (which is one of my next steps.) I hope the results continue in the right direction. This was my 10th surgery and probably the most time consuming rehab since my allograft 8 years ago. Good luck to all and if anyone has any questions I have already had 3-5 people send me e-mails, I have no problem answering them. Sharon B.

Marc - I am very interested in hearing how your post -op period went and just how you are getting along now. I am set to undergo a HTO and am pretty nervous about it - do not kn0w anyone personally who has had this procedure. I live in Miami and will have the surgery here. Other options do not seem suited to my problem but i am trying to get an appt with a Doctor in Vail who is suppossedly the great knee guru. Would appreciate hearing from you Thanks so much.

I am 50 and trying to decide whether to have the HTO in the new year. I am being fit with a Genesis II unloader brace and am anxious to see if that helps with the pain. Anyone with expierence with this apparatus please let me know about it. Thanks in advance. pj

I am 32. 65 kgs, bow legged. HTO is recommended as a means of averting a total knee repl. 10 years down the line. Have had pain for the last 6 years. What worst case long term scenarios have been seen with this techniques? Thanks

Seven months ago I had an "Open-Wedge" Tibial Osteotomy and ACL reconsruction. I'm becoming very frustrated because I haven't been able to talk to anyone who has ever had both surgeries, or even the osteotomy. The doctor and physical therapists assure me I'm doing as well as can be expected but I'm not sure if this is true or not. I haven't gained back all my muscle on the surgery leg yet and doing leg extensions are extremely painful due to under the kneecap pain. My original problem is osteoarthritis and being bow-legged. The doctor straightened my leg by doing the osteotomy and now I have to have the other side done too. I would just like to hear from anyone else that has had this done and how they are doing.

I too am glad to have found this site. I am 48 years old. I have been suffering from osteoarthritis since I was in my early 30's. I am extremely bowlegged. I have had 2 arthroscopes done. Both knees are affected. Last year, it got to the point of requiring knee joint injections. This does seem to eliviate the discomfort. However it only lasts for a month to 2 months. I am trying to decide whether to have my leg straightened or not. Reading your stories here is a great help. I don't know which would be worse...the surgery or the pain of bone on bone for 10 more yrs. I don't think they would hold up that long. If there are other bowlegged people out there, I'd love to hear from you. Martie Dunn

JUST HAD A OSTEOTOMY OF THE TIBIA 5WKS. AAAGO JUST WONDERING WHAT YOUR RECOVERY TIME WAS MY DR. PRESS THE POINT NO WT. ON IT FOR 4 MORE WKS. LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU

Underwent ACL replacement in 1983 using autograft (prepattelar tendon) in my left knee. At that time the surgeon salvaged as much of the medial meniscus as possible but for the past 17 years, with less than half the meniscus in tact, I have dealt with an increasing amount of pain/arthritic develoment due to the lack of soft tissue on the medial side of the joint. This past December, I underwent the second major procedure to correct the arthrtic wear in my knee. The surgeon performed a High Tibial Osteotomy (Closing Wedge.) He also used a heated probe to attempt and tighten up the ACL. (Rather than use an allograft to replace the original autograft.) I am very interested in getting some feedback from other readers that may have had this type of procedure. How are you doing 1, 5, 10 years post operative? I am 37 years of age, and my Doctor had indicated that at 37, a full knee replacement was out of the question as they do not last that long in younger patients. Based on current knee expertise, I am looking at a total knee replacement 15-20 years down the road.Very interested in any feed back!! Thanks, Marc Viselli