arthroscopic surgery-absorbable stitches

[NadiaMac]

Hey, thought I'd toss out this question to the forum since there seem to be a lot of knee surgery survivors as well as healthcare professionals. I had arthroscopic knee surgery 5 weeks ago (lateral meniscotomy, chondroplasty and medial plica removal) and the doc used absorbable stitches on the portals (two). The portals are still quite swollen-- hard knobs-- and the swelling is irritating as it gets tugged on and irritated when I move the knee.

Doc told me at last apptment that the swelling would persist for a while as the stitches continued to be absorbed, and that it would worsen and harden before it improved. He refused to give a timeline for this (i hate that!), consistent with his apparent general policy of not answering any prognosis type questions (he's really tough to get info out of). The stitches are still visible in the incision, so I infer that there is some time to go with the absorption process.

Anyone have any idea what an average timeline is for this type of thing (I understand that there is immense variation in healing rates, inflammation, etc.). Thanks for any input.
NM

[surgtech1956]

I am a Surgical Technologist and probably the suture that he used is Vicryl or Polysorb. This suture takes about approx 9(give or take) weeks to completely absorb. An incision is closed in layers. Not taking your doctor's side, but everyone heals differently as far as a timeframe. Such healing factors include nutrition, diabetes. The 'hard knobs' might be the knots of the suture. Hope this helps.

[NadiaMac]

Thanks Nancy! this is super useful info! I seem to be slow to heal, so I'll probably take longer than 9 weeks