Meniscus tear surgery

[loob job]

So it's official I have an "Oblique tear of the posterior horn of the lateral meniscus"........so says the MRI........lamens terms torn meniscus.
Had the surgery about 12 years ago on the same knee for the same thing, damn baseball, and i hated the way i felt when i woke up from the anesthetic. Same with two other minor surgeries.
My question is this, has anyone had meniscus repair surgery with just local anasthetic and not been put under? I think i've heard of it, just wondered if anyone here has had that and their opinion of it. Thanks.

[Locke]

Dont be a baby, just sit through the surgery puffing on a cigar and draining a bottle of scotch while making derogatory comments regarding the surgeon's work.

"You call that a suture? If this was the back in my day, the 50s a Golden era, I'd show you a suture!"

"You're making that incision all wrong, where'd you get your license? Johns Hopkins? Never heard of it."

"Are you sure you're qualified to operate that device?"

All of these comments and more in conjunction with scotch and general belligerence will ensure you have a safe and successful surgery.

[Saint Troy]

My meniscus surgery goes mid July, and I definitely want to be gassed.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

Dont be a baby, just sit through the surgery puffing on a cigar and draining a bottle of scotch while making derogatory comments regarding the surgeon's work.

"You call that a suture? If this was the back in my day, the 50s a Golden era, I'd show you a suture!"

"You're making that incision all wrong, where'd you get your license? Johns Hopkins? Never heard of it."

"Are you sure you're qualified to operate that device?"

All of these comments and more in conjunction with scotch and general belligerence will ensure you have a safe and successful surgery.

Hey stupid, I need that to live.

I'm getting knee surgery not a sexchange so watch the knife Doctor Giggles.

Frick your works reminds me of thanksgiving when we let our 98 year old drunken grandmother carve the turkey.

Hope you have your lawyer on speed dial.

I've seen better surgery performed by a 5 year old blind kid playing operation.

[ken0042]

I'm just thinking with how deep they'd have to go that you wouldn't want to be able to feel it.

Might also be an issue with the knee being a reflex sensitive part of the body. Last thing the doctor would want is to just touch a nerve and get kicked in the face.

[Saint Troy]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I'm just thinking with how deep they'd have to go that you wouldn't want to be able to feel it.

Might also be an issue with the knee being a reflex sensitive part of the body. Last thing the doctor would want is to just touch a nerve and get kicked in the face.

Wish I hadn't read that.

[old-fart]

If you are going to wreck your knee do it right... torn ACL and LCL, strained MCL and meniscus tear.

Ya, they put me out to fix that bad boy. Nice scar tho...

[Eric Vail]

Originally Posted by loob job

So it's official I have an "Oblique tear of the posterior horn of the lateral meniscus"........so says the MRI........lamens terms torn meniscus.
Had the surgery about 12 years ago on the same knee for the same thing, damn baseball, and i hated the way i felt when i woke up from the anesthetic. Same with two other minor surgeries.
My question is this, has anyone had meniscus repair surgery with just local anasthetic and not been put under? I think i've heard of it, just wondered if anyone here has had that and their opinion of it. Thanks.

I have had five scopes and a reconstruction on my knee. Last June was the last time I got it cleaned out and the first time I didn't have general anesthetic. I simply had local and they gave me an option of having a gas which would relax me. I turned the gas down because I wanted to watch the surgery. I found it quite cool to be able to talk to the surgeon and see what they were doing. He could point out what the problem was so I could see it first hand. If I ever have the option again, I am doing the local anesthetic. The recovery was easier, and the experience was far better.

[NuclearFart]

Depends on the surgeon. This is a little too major to be done under just local anesthetic, but you can probably find a surgeon who will do it using "conscious sedation". It basically means they give you enough drugs under IV that you'll get sleepy/high, but not enough that you're completely out and requiring intubation. This also means no gas.

Failing that, if you mention specifically what it is that bothered you so much after general anesthetic last time (eg nausea) to the anesthetist, they can alter the drug profile and give you a shot of other stuff to try and negate a particular side effect.

[bleeds green]

I had double knee surgery 14 months ago and have them both scoped and then had my patella tendons reattached on both knees that I had severed. I did the whole surgery with them basically having a local from my waist down. Let me tell you if I ever had to get it done again I would do it that way for sure. For the scopes they pulled up a monitor and let me watch the whole scope and would point out cartilage that was being taken out and then would hold it up over the sheet afterwards, was really interesting. The reattaching of the tendons was a little different and I just laid back and could hear all the work being done and a nurse explained step by step what was going on. I do have a new respect for certain power tools now as well as they had to hammer and chisel a bit off of my shins and then drill a screw through the tendon in the chiseled out area to reattach. Seriously this sounds gross but if you don't mind the noise was a very interesting experience and recovering from a local compared to going right under is so much easier. However I do look at hammers and chisel and power drills a little differently now.