Rita
Brighton, Colorado
Rita suffered from severe pain in her right knee for longer than she can remember. By 2009, years of growing discomfort caused the 71-year old resident of Brighton, Colorado to begin using a cane, making day-to-day activities very difficult for somebody used to an active lifestyle.
“When I grew up, if I fell over and hurt my knee nobody would tell you to go to the doctor,” said Rita. “They’d tell you to get up and walk it off.”
Years of wear and tear eventually took their toll on Rita, making hobbies like gardening, helping out around her daughter’s bakery and spending time with her great grandchildren difficult. “Something as simple as walking across the room turned to agony,” Rita added.
To combat the nagging pain in her knees, Rita looked into several different solutions, none of which solved the problem. Years of pain medication didn’t do the trick. In fact, it led to a bleeding ulcer. She visited a chiropractor, who advised her that he likely couldn’t help. Rita even researched a novel laser treatment for her knee “but that only really works with mild pain,” she said.
Despite the discomfort, Rita continued to help out at her daughter’s bakery until one morning in January 2009, when she was backed into while holding a tray of biscuits during the morning rush. Her knee collapsed and she fell to the ground, breaking her hip in the process. After having her hip replaced successfully by Dr. Aaron Baxter at North Denver Orthopedics Specialists, Rita decided it was finally time to also fix her knee once and for all.
In October 2010, Rita returned to Dr. Baxter and let him know that she was ready for a change. Dr. Baxter implanted the EVOLUTION® Medial-Pivot Knee System, a next-generation technology from MicroPort.
After surgery, Rita could feel the difference almost immediately. She was out of the hospital after four days, and within just a month, resumed her active lifestyle, doing the things she used to take for granted such as Christmas shopping at the mall.
Rita’s return to an active lifestyle didn’t stop at the mall, however. She returned to her daughter’s bakery, spending nearly 50 hours a week selling baked goods to the North Denver community. She’s even back in the garden she had to abandon long ago.
Today, Rita is looking ahead to the future and living her life free of any pain in her knees. Her cane hasn’t been touched in months and she can finally spend more time being active with her great-grandchildren. “This has been a real blessing,” she says. “A true blessing.”
MicroPort’s EVOLUTION® Medial-Pivot knee replacement implant is designed to restore natural stability and motion to the knee. It is comprised of a ball-in-socket mechanism that mimics the stability of the anatomical knee and its curved shape allows the knee to freely bend and rotate.
The EVOLUTION® Knee is designed to help reproduce normal motion by more closely replicating the knee’s natural anatomy, which helps provide stability. It is designed to eliminate the “sliding” feeling common with other knee systems, which may improve patient confidence associated with use of the knee. The system is comprised of implants and instruments designed to accommodate less-invasive surgery, which means smaller incisions and less soft tissue damage for surgeons who choose to use less-invasive techniques.
These results are specific to this individual only. Individual results and activity levels after surgery vary and depend on many factors including age, weight and prior activity level.
There are risks and recovery times associated with surgery and there are certain individuals who should not undergo surgery.