Frank Boitano had been bow legged all his life. While it didn’t cause him much concern most of his life, once he hit retirement, Frank began to experience pain that made his day-to-day activities, like climbing stairs, excruciating. “I couldn’t walk up stairs, I had to take one step at a time and I had to have a hand rail,” Frank explains.
When the pain started affecting his daily life, Frank decided it was time to seek treatment. He found himself sitting in the office of Dr. Christopher Dolan at Great Basin Orthopaedics. “He discussed a few options with me,” Frank recalls, “but he said it was a natural thing that had occurred where I had worn off all the cartilage. He advised we do a total knee replacement.”
“Frank, had severe malalingnment of his knees,” explains Dr. Dolan. “This bowlegged position had resulted in the complete wearing away of the cartilage inside his knee, which eventually lead to breakdown of the cartilage through out his knee. His knee was ‘bone on bone’ and this was not only preventing an active life, but making simple daily activities severely painful.”
Frank took Dr. Dolan’s advice, and he’s glad he did. The surgery and recovery went smoothly with no complications. In fact, it went so well that Frank came back to Dr. Dolan in September of 2014 to get a total knee replacement done on his other leg. “It improved 100%,” Frank says. “I can walk-up stairs without any pain. It’s just great. Dr. Dolan did a really great job and it’s getting better every day.”
“Frank was the ideal patient,” Dr. Dolan recalls. “He committed to rehab and getting the best result possible. Like the majority of my patients, he left the hospital early on the second day and was hospitalized less than 48 hours.”