When the orthopedic surgeon needs a new knee

For 34 years, orthopedic surgeon and East County native Dr. Peter Hanson has been fixing the knees and changing the lives of his fellow residents. How many exactly? His best estimate of his body of work is somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 knee surgeries.

That’s a lot of time on one’s feet.

Over several years, left knee pain flared and, as it does for most patients, reached a point where it was affecting important parts of his life. Eventually, Dr. Hanson couldn’t walk from Sharp Grossmont Hospital down the hill to his office.

“It had slowly barred me from doing certain things I loved,” says Dr. Hanson. “When it prevented me from being able to operate, that was what finally pushed me to get surgery.”

He says the condition of his knees was partly shaped by genes and partly his early lifestyle — he played both high school and college football. But more than three decades of standing at the operating room table, often in nonergonomically perfect positions on a hard floor, had taken its toll.

In familiar hands

When it came time to act, he didn’t have to look far for help. Dr. Hanson turned to his own practice partner, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrew Yoo, who was well aware of the condition of Dr. Hanson’s knee.

“One day I was walking by his computer, and he was looking at some knee X-rays,” recalls Dr. Yoo. “I said to him, ‘Wow, those are in bad shape,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, well, those are mine.’ “

Dr. Yoo sheepishly admits he knew this mission would be different than any surgery he had done, but not because of Dr. Hanson’s knee. “He is my senior partner, first of all,” says Dr. Yoo. “And he’s a stalwart of the medical community in East County and San Diego in general.”

Dr. Yoo admitted that the level of stress and expectation was much greater because of who this patient was. “If he does great, then everyone will know,” says Dr. Yoo. “And if he doesn’t do well, I’ll hear about it every day for the rest of my life that I did his knee surgery and it didn’t turn out great.”

No pressure, right? Fortunately, Dr. Yoo had nothing to worry about. The two of them had consulted together on what the surgery would look like. They agreed that Dr. Hanson was a good candidate for a partial knee replacement, rather than a total knee replacement.

Knees have three compartments. In more than 80% of patients, all three go bad, and surgeons perform a total knee replacement.

Dr. Hanson’s joint was bone-on-bone, and his arthritis was on the inner portion of his knee, but the rest of the joint was healthy. Performing a partial knee replacement preserves the healthy part of the joint and results in a shorter recovery time, less pain medication and a quicker return to favorite activities.

As with all of his knee surgeries, Dr. Yoo performed the procedure using the Mako robot. The robotic-arm-assisted surgery helped him use 3D modeling to identify and remove only the arthritic part of Dr. Hanson’s knee.

Despite this being one of his specialties, and the number of times he’s performed the procedure, he admits it still hit differently — yet in a very good way.

“It was a nerve-wracking surgery,” says Dr. Yoo. “But ultimately, it was an honor and a privilege to be the one to perform it.”

Moving forward, literally

Dr. Hanson says everyone has a different threshold for how long they wait until having a knee replacement. For him, he admits he should have done it a bit sooner. But that’s all in the past.

“I can definitely talk to patients from a personal viewpoint about those decisions, the surgery and what to expect with the recovery — a lot more directly than before,” he says.

Now, he can operate on patients pain-free and is heading to Europe for a well-earned respite. “I’m planning on logging 15,000 steps a day over there, which is something I can now do routinely, every day, as well as stand next to the operating table, thanks to my practice partner.”

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