Triathlete Returns to Podium after Partial Knee Replacement
My name is Scott Ensley. I'm a 62 year old triathlete and I had a MAKO partial knee replacement four months ago at The Stone Clinic this weekend. I'm competing in the Alcatraz triathlon in San Francisco and that's a very tough race. I feel confident enough to be able to participate in that kind of a race, only four months post-surgery. Most of the medical opinions that I received on the left knee were, let's remove the whole thing. Let's do the conventional knee approach. You know, you might not be able to run anymore, but that's not that big of a deal. Right? You're 60 I heard that kind of attitude constantly, so that's why I decided to put the effort in a lot of effort and a lot of time to try and find the right doctor. Okay. In your opinion and do this. I wanted to be very aggressive in my approach to sports as soon as possible and the MAKO knee allowed that because of the fit that occurs with the MAKO knee, you can immediately start weighting it and you can immediately start training with it. The surgery lasted an hour approximately. I was in the hospital a few hours. The next day I can start walking without crutches, more or less, and I was certainly off crutches. That first week.
I was expecting some good positive growth and changes that would occur over some weeks or some months and instead what occurred is I experienced that every day within weeks I could actually bicycle quite successfully walk with no limp. And so within two months of the operation, I was actually able to compete in a very large triathlon, the Wildflower triathlon, and won that race. And then it felt so good that the next day I decided I would go ahead and compete also and got second in that race. And so at that point, within two months of the operation, I knew that I was going to be able to be completely back and have the lifestyle that I wanted forever because of the success of the knee operation for Scott. Once the knee had progressed to bone on bone, so there was no further space available to do biologic procedures. The right solution is a partial knee replacement using an artificial material on the femur and the tibia, but just in one part of the knee and that's what permits him to get back to an elite sports level.
Scott Endsley Profile
Scott is a world-class triathlete who presented to us in 2014 after having nine right knee surgeries beginning in 1974. He had an arthritic knee with a poor range of motion and stiffness, however, not much pain. His left knee had articular cartilage loss, meniscus tears, loss of motion, and pain.
Scott underwent a partial knee replacement for his left knee. He then completed the Wildflower Triathlon two months after his partial knee replacement, as well as a second triathlon the day after. Five months post-surgery, he completed the San Francisco triathlon where he came in second place. Nine months later, he reported his knee was “perfect” and he qualified for the World Championships in multisports in Canada.
Updates from Scott Endsley
