Genes are what make each one of us unique, but sometimes that uniqueness puts us at a medical disadvantage. That’s the case for a Pierre teen who is hopeful his rare knee condition will soon be behind him. Slade Stoeser is no stranger to the ortho clinic. The reason? His kneecaps love to pop in and out of place.
“After I got my first surgery, which was to stop it, I popped it out for a third time. That was in football practice doing Oklahoma drills, and I went to go tackle somebody and I tackled him and then it like kind of popped out and I fell and it went back in,” said Slade Stoeser.
“Initially we thought and it still could be that he grew too fast and his tendons didn't weren't supportive of his kneecaps, but that was before the right one popped out. It was only the left and then the right started popping out also,” said Hollie Stoeser, Slade’s mother.
That was when Slade was 12 years old. Now that he's done growing, he's hopeful he can correct the issue with Mark Hagy, MD an orthopedic surgeon with Avera Orthopedics in Pierre.
“He figured out that I had patella alta,” said Slade.
"Patellar instability is the condition, caused by patella alta,” said Dr. Hagy.
“So my kneecaps are too high up. They're not in the right groove. So he wanted to put some screws in to push it down or pull it down. And he did an MRI a week before surgery and found a whole bunch of other stuff that needed to be done,” said Slade.
“His other problem is called an osteochondral defect of the lateral femoral condyle. To have the combination of these two, I've never seen,” said Dr. Hagy.
What the MRI showed was damage to the cartilage as well as cysts inside the bone on his left knee, meaning a more complicated, multifaceted surgery.
“The procedure is called a tibial tubercle transfer. That's the part that gives the patella the stability. And then the other one's called an Oates procedure, but it's where you're taking graft from either the patient or a cadaveric bone and placing it into the patient's defect where the bone in the cartilage is not healthy,” said Dr. Hagy.
Ten weeks out, Slade is already starting to see improvement.
“Right now, he is early, but he's met all his milestones. He's gotten his motion,” said Dr. Hagy.
“After surgery, when we got the wrap taken off, I could see that it (the patella) was in a completely different spot than the right one,” said Slade.
He's healed the tibial tubercle transfer. The patella is stable.
“Normally, when he does checkups on me, he'll wiggle it (the patella) around. And before, he'd be pushing it out to where it almost popped out. And it didn't feel very good, but now it doesn't feel like that anymore. He can sit there and wiggle it all he wants. It doesn't bother me,” said Slade.
“And the fact that his knee's not swollen and he's not having any pain, those are all good markers,” said Dr. Hagy.
“My main thing was he's a big kid, and he's going to have to stand on those legs for the rest of his life. So, regardless of anything else, I just want him to be stable,” said Hollie.
This is a longer road to recovery, given that it can take up to a year for the cartilage to heal, and he still needs to fix that right knee. But for Slade, it's a big first step to a life with a lower risk of dislocations.
“Just be able to do stuff, whatever my friends are doing without having to wear these knee braces and make sure my knees don't pop out or just hang out with them and play football and rough around with them. And it’s not concerning,” said Slade.
The ever evolving consumer demands and growth across our region has prompted the team to also grow and put efforts into ensuring patients will always have access to the care they need. When injuries happen, whether it’s in Sioux Falls, Aberdeen or Pierre, the team at Avera Orthopedics is there.
