A new knee for Father Cataudo
Looking at the narrow vertical scar running just below Father Anthony Cataudo's right knee, you would never guess what caused the scar a few months earlier. It was through this now-fading incision that Father Cataudo had his entire right knee replaced with a brand new one.
For years, Father Cataudo suffered from the aches and pains of arthritis, and was treated conservatively with oral medications and injections. This enabled him to perform his duties that include serving as the chaplain for the sisters of the Perpetual Rosary Shrine in Camden, New Jersey — a cloistered order of Dominican nuns who devote their lives to prayer.
As the years wore on, however, Father Cataudo's symptoms got worse and soon he was hobbling around in excrutiating pain. "By the end of last year, I couldn't put any weight on my right leg," he says. One of his parishioners, Ninfa Saunders, came to the rescue. Saunders, Virtua's executive vice president for health services, suggested that Father Cataudo see a Virtua orthopaedic surgeon. Father Cataudo chose to see
Scott Schoifet, MD, medical director of Virtua's Total Joint Replacement Program. When Dr. Schoifet looked at a magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI) of Father Cataudo's right knee, he found a hole the size of a golf ball.
"The cartilage in Father's right knee had been peeling off like an onion," explains Dr. Schoifet. "The disease behind the damage was osteonecrosis, a condition where the blood supply to the bone is cut off and the bone dies. Unlike osteoarthritis — which causes slow deterioration, often over many years — the damage of osteonecrosis may happen suddenly. A person can go from having no pain to being almost incapacitated."
A minimally invasive solution
Dr. Schoifet recommended a total knee replacement for Father Cataudo and was able to perform the surgery using a minimally invasive technique. This meant Father Cataudo only needed a 3.5-inch incision, versus one 8 or 9 inches long. Another benefit of the minimally invasive procedure was that Dr. Schoifet did not cut the quadriceps tendon, the largest tendon in the body. For most people, this means healing occurs faster and with less pain.
"Twenty-four hours after the operation," Father Cataudo says, "the pain I had felt prior to the surgery was gone." And on Palm Sunday, less than six weeks after his surgery, Father Cataudo stood on his feet and led Mass, a duty he had been unable to perform since December 2004.
"Father Cataudo healed beautifully," says Dr. Schoifet. And that is something to rejoice.