Dwight Howard receives bone marrow aspirate injection in his right knee

Do you believe the doctor is lying when he said there is no cartilage issues with Dwight? Fluid on the bone does not equal bone on bone. He has fluid on the knee. This isn't that uncommon of a situation and doesn't spell end of his career.

He was playing relatively well despite the condition and despite pain. The only way what you are saying makes sense is if the doctors and the team are lying and just wasting time when he really has a cartilage problem that they aren't even trying to address right now.

 

lol you're insane that one doctor said the cartilage damage is tiny....I don't believe for 1 second he's actually bone on bone....just some wear and tear

 

The amount of Doctors on these forums... crazy.

 

The Bone on Bone story is created based on the Howard interview, there is nothing to do with the doctor diagnosis.

 

Healthy knees that just need rest do not go through 2 procedures in the last couple of months.....

It would be GREAT if he completely recovers, but it sure seems like there is more to this story.

DD

 

excerpts from articles on enhanced cartilage growth factors


The cartilage in your nose and the cartilage in your knee, for example, are very different. Nose cartilage usually has Type I collagen, and the area around your joints is made up of Type II collagen. With microfracture, usually the tissue that forms is Type I, so it doesn’t match what’s naturally there. In some cases, microfracture does relieve pain but, in a lot of other cases, it doesn’t do much.

During development, cartilage is vascularized, meaning it has blood vessels running through it. But as you get older, those blood vessels go away. So if you damage it, it doesn’t grow back because there’s no bleeding. The other reason is that cartilage is very dense. So cells on the outside can’t migrate in, and cartilage cells don’t divide well.



In early trials on animals with cartilage defects, the animals were treated with microfracture, where tiny holes made in the bone beneath the damaged area allow a new blood supply to stimulate new cartilage growth. Implants trialled microfracture alone; microfracture and the nanofiber gel with growth factor added; and microfracture and the nanofiber gel without growth factor added.

Researchers found their technique produced much better results than the microfracture procedure alone, and significantly that addition of expensive growth factor was not required to get the best results. Instead growth factor present in the body appeared to be sufficient to regenerate cartilage because of the molecular design of the gel material. The gel matrix only needs to be present for a month, after which it begins to biodegrade into nutrients and is replaced by natural cartilage.

For the thousands of amateur athletics, professional sportspeople, and elderly people who suffer with joint pain in knees, elbows and shoulders this could be a boon. Used in conjunction with current minimally invasive surgical techniques it could accelerate rehabilitation, and delay or even halt the progression of cartilage lesions into painful degeneration and arthritis. The nanomaterial is being evaluated in a larger preclinical study after which it is hoped the procedure will move to clinical trials.

 

A serious blow to the knee that caused a bone bruise could lead to fluid on the knee. The fluid is released by the body to protect the knee. This fluid would be uncomfortable and without rest would linger.

I don't know that this is what is going on with Howard, but with the doctor saying the knee has nothing structurally wrong with it, the lack of a surgical procedure, using the term bone bruise, saying all he needs is rest but this injection may help even more...I'm inclined to believe that he caused an injury to his knee either in game or out of game that led to a serious bone bruise and fluid on the knee.

Unless the doctors are lying, he has no cartilage issue. It's hard to imagine that a doctor that works for the Memorial system would just flat out lie. Not tell the whole truth? Sure. But to specifically rule out certain things? That would be a stretch.

 

We need Dwight, even at 50% (because that's still better than Dorsey), but it is critically important that he recognizes and understands his limitations and his new role on offense by playoff time. It shall be interesting to watch.

 

Yeah. It's one thing to be skeptical or thinking there's more to the story than meets the eye.

It's another to just come out and acting like it's fact that Dwight's done and that the doctor's just BSing to the public.

 

#FindingEmo

 

His downfall already started in Orlando and LA, his injuries were downplayed and overshadowed by his relationship or non relationship to Bean Bryant.

Rockets took the chance and risk like 5 other teams would in search for talent which is a fair deal. I give them that.

This is different from the Yao and Tmac scenario as both of latter were relatively healthy when they were drafted or acquired by the Rockets.

At least we know that he is not the best option going forward.

 

^^^ This ^^^ Even an injured D12 could be a difference maker in the playoffs in the right situations.

 

Should have kept Asik and traded Dwight! Now we are stuck with a max contract guy who will never be worth his contract not to mention Dwight's asinine belief that he is a post up player when he is terrible at it. Even when healthy, feeding Dwight's ego hurts this team.

 

I have a feeling you're right. They're putting bone marrow aspirate in there and praying he regenerates his cartilage. Even if it does, its just not going to be the same structurally as cartilage that been cultivated and molded through natural youth and growing.

Dwight flat out said the truth. The doctor speaking now is just being optimistic.

 

Keep telling yourself that.

Sprained knee doesn't take half a season to recover from. Doesn't require injecting fake cartilage either.

This is very serious.

 

You are confusing two separate things. He is not missing a month because of the injections, he is missing it because of the edema.

 

I hope Howard comes back... And he stays healthy enough so that the Rockets can trade him.

 

Agree!!! Let someone else have this headache.I seriously doubt he would be worth much in a trade but just getting rid of his contract would be worth it.

 

Let's hope that indeed it is the edema and not the cartilage that is the issue.

Fact is he has cartilage damage and that tends to get worse with time not better.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Doctor <a href="https://twitter.com/KennethFirst">@KennethFirst</a> just told us he thinks it's 50-50 that Dwight Howard would need surgery after the year, likely microfracture. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a></p>&mdash; nick wright (@getnickwright) <a href="https://twitter.com/getnickwright/status/563332652724674560">February 5, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

I would be happy with some dump contract players and a draft pick at this point. We gave up nothing to get him so I wouldn't be concerned with getting equal value in a trade to get rid of him.