SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Doctors at Scripps Health are using a new knee surgical procedure to get patients back to doing the activities that they love.
ABC 10News Anchor Jared Aarons spoke to local volleyball player Tatum Vedder, who suffered a devastating knee injury while playing the game in 2019.
Despite undergoing three ACL surgeries over the years, as well as operations on her meniscus and cartilage, Vedder said her recovery did not go the way she had hoped because she was still experiencing serious pain.
“I mean, the simplest tasks were really a struggle. Going from my car to my house, carrying the groceries, pushing a grocery cart. The things you wouldn't think or typically l take for granted were really brutal,” said Vedder.
But it all changed for Vedder when she met Dr. Tim Wang at Scripps Clinic.
Wang's colleague Dr. Bill Bugbee had been at the forefront of a new knee surgery method known as osteochondral allograft transplants.
According to Scripps Health, this procedure involves removing a coin-shaped section of damaged cartilage and bone at the bottom of the femur and replacing it with a healthy section of donor cartilage and bone.
Instead of several surgeries over time, Dr. Wang operated on Tatum's damaged ligaments and bones all at once, including her ACL, meniscus and cartilage and bone. The latter procedure patches damage in the cartilage that could lead to long-term pain or arthritis.
This surgery is geared towards younger patients who could still have a long, active life ahead of them; Wang said most patients get back to nearly 90% of their physical activity.
“The best part of my job is to see how our patients do from the beginning to the end and see how happy they are how active they are afterwards,” Wang said.
Vedder knows she might still need to undergo a knee replacement down the road, but the surgery took the pain away and took her back to the game she loves.
“It was exciting. It was awesome to hear I could play again, and surf too … If I hadn't had the surgery, I don't think I would be playing right now,” Vedder said.
