Just finished up my 3 week, 3 rounds of Visco gel shots in my left knee. I'm 57 and me and my Ortho doctor are both trying to put off partial knee replacement for as long as possible!
Tore my medial meniscus and had it scoped exactly 10 years, the 100% (for sure) byproduct of repairing your meniscus is arthritis, and that's where I'm at right now!
When I first went in to see about another cortisone shot around 6 or 7 weeks ago, I was dying, would of had surgery that very day! Got the cortisone shot and immediately felt better.....lasted 3 or 4 days, called again and got the ball rolling on setting up the Visco gel shots.
My doctor said the manufacturer states that if it works (works for about 80% of patients) then I should start seeing results around 4 weeks after my very first shot. Gotta say, my knee still hurts but it's the best it's felt in months!
After my first visit (the day I wanted to cut my leg off) I asked this doctor what was involved in a second meniscus surgery, as in how successful is it a second time? He showed me my very fresh Xray and said sorry, that surgery is off the table for you.....you're bone on bone on your medial side!
So this gel therapy is my only shot right now, and I'm banking on it....hard, cause the next step is the big surgery! He told me I can't have the gel shots for at least 6 months after this last shot and if it's helping we'll take a look in 6 months and do it again, and then again!
Good luck, bad knees suck!!