When Mark Ditter, 66, a semi-retired machinist from Fremont, Nebraska, was driving down to Kansas City for his new part-time job, he found himself in a predicament. He couldn’t get out of the car and walk on his knee without excruciating pain.
“I had reached the point where I had to do something,” Ditter said. “The last 10 years of my career were spent on concrete. I knew I was in rough shape.”
Dr. Michael Stojanovic
He made an appointment to see Dr. Michael Stojanovic, at OrthoNebraska, who quickly took X-rays, confirmed an old meniscus tear and that his knee arthritis was “bone on bone.” Ditter was ready for knee replacement surgery as soon as possible and was grateful to be able to do it within a few weeks.
While no stranger to surgery, Ditter said this was on a different level than his past experiences. Dr. Stojanovic uses modern practices such as robotic-assisted surgery and often sends patients home on the same day.
“I arrived at 9 a.m. and was home by 7:30 p.m. I got up a little while after surgery and they said I could go home after I walked a bit using my walker and went to the restroom with a little coaching,” Ditter said.
Joint replacement is done much differently today than it was even 10 years ago.
“Technology has come such a long way — with implants lasting 20-plus years, to robotic assistive technology ensuring accurate (within 1 mm) cuts and implant insertion, to same-day discharge, to advanced, many-layered pain control strategies that are customizable to the patient’s individual level of pain tolerance,” said Dr. Stojanovic, a fellowship-trained joint replacement surgeon.
Ditter was extremely complimentary of everyone involved in his care, noting that they answered his questions directly and cited personal experience. In his words: “They know their stuff.”
He said he has friends who have had surgery who have not had the same outcome he has, which makes him think the people and place make a difference. As one example, he was given a detailed chart of how often to take several pain medications after surgery so he could keep on top of it, which in turn helped him do his home exercises and see the progress in therapy everyone hopes for.
“Knee surgery is one of those things you have to realize you aren’t going to be over in a week’s time. I’m about two months after surgery now, and I’m at about 85 percent. I still have some pain. I’m far from running a marathon, but I’m optimistic that in time, I’m going to get where I want to be.”
Dr. Stojanovic says it’s important to have this long-term outlook as a joint replacement patient. It often takes four to six months to get to where it’s unequivocally better than before surgery, but then you get to be better for many years.
Dr. Sayfe Jassim
“As we developed this new robotic-guided technology, it’s not about replacing the surgeon or even making us faster,” said Dr. Sayfe Jassim, another joint replacement surgeon at OrthoNebraska who helped design the technology. “It’s about giving us real-time data that helps us make optimal decisions during the surgery and giving our patients better outcomes.”
“I don’t know how I could have had a better experience,” Ditter said. “Everything was done so professionally and upbeat.”
For more information, please visit orthonebraska.com.
