Knee Replacement Returns Former College Basketball Player to Active Life   

Knee Replacement Returns Former College Basketball Player to Active Life

 Leslie Porschen dancing after knee replacement.

When lifelong athlete Leslie Porschen began experiencing pain in her knee, she knew she had to seek treatment if she wanted to continue enjoying her active lifestyle and participate in the sports she loved.

Leslie, who played basketball in high school and college and was inducted into Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Hall of Fame, went to see Yair David Kissin, M.D. at Hackensack University Medical Center

Dr. Kissin, board-certified in orthopedic surgery and sports medicine, has a special interest in conditions of the knee. He presented Leslie with a range of treatment options.

“My approach to most of my patients, if not all, is that surgery is a last resort. But surgery shouldn’t be ignored until a person is already so debilitated that they’ve been suffering needlessly for a long time,” Dr. Kissin said. “We have many ways of treating knee osteoarthritis, and we also have a cure called a knee replacement.”

A ‘Quality-of-Life-Saving’ Decision

Dr. Kissin explained that whether he’s seeing a patient for the first time or he’s been treating them for a while, he encourages them to assess how their diagnosis is impacting their daily life.

“Ultimately, I tell them, ‘You will let me know when you’re ready. Your knee will let you know when you’re ready.’ I don’t tell you to have the surgery. It’s elective surgery, which means that you elect to have it done. This isn’t an emergency surgery, and it’s not a life-saving surgery. It’s a quality-of-life-saving surgery. What I make very clear to my patients is that I take it very seriously and that it’s about a 90 or more percent success rate, too,” he said.

In Leslie’s case, she opted for the nonsurgical route first and, initially, received injections to deal with her discomfort.

“She was coming from a very active lifestyle and knew that she was getting limited,” Dr. Kissin said. “But the nonsurgical treatments, like physical therapy and a series of injections, seemed to be working.”

When, eventually, the injections weren’t enough, Leslie decided to go ahead with knee replacement surgery.

“I texted him when I was in London and I said, ‘It’s time,” Leslie said. “I think I sent him a limping emoji. He always told me I’d know when it was time, and I did.”

Dr. Kissin said Leslie made an informed decision that had been coming for a long time.

“She tipped over into the area of actually having her knee operated on, which, at that point, she understood was her best option—especially after she tried other options and they stopped working as effectively as they did before,” Dr. Kissin said.

Providing a Cure Through Knee Surgery

Dr. Kissin shared that he decided to pursue orthopedic surgery because he enjoys working with his hands and the tools used to restore patients to their busy lives.

“At the end of the day, it’s actually about my patients, and my real interest is to get patients back to a life that they want to live,” he said. “While I don’t think that I save people’s lives, I do think that patients do have a major life change when things go well, which they usually do with an operation like this.”

Kissin added, “There are very few cures in medicine, certainly in surgery, where we can identify a diagnosis, cut the problem out, and put new parts in and do that effectively, and this is one of them. So, to me, that is the most intriguing, most inviting part of what I do.”

Post-surgery, Leslie remains active and plays golf, walks, bikes and practices yoga.

“When I see my patients have a good outcome and be able to do the things that they told me they were unable to do before the surgery, that the surgery enabled them to go back to that lifestyle, and that patients are able to live their life the way they’d like to live it — that’s the most fulfilling feeling that I have,” said Dr. Kissin. 

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The material provided through HealthU is intended to be used as general information only and should not replace the advice of your physician. Always consult your physician for individual care.

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