Seventeen years ago I had a snow-skiing injury in which I tore my meniscus cartilage. They removed the cartilage in surgery and found a broken bone on the joint line which eventually healed. I am 54 and now have been diagnosed as having arthritis confined to the side where the injury occurred. Surgery has been advised to realign the joint. Do I have any nonsurgical options?

You described a scenario common in knees that have had the type of trauma you described. Post-traumatic arthritis of the knee often occurs years after a broken bone involving the joint line. The fracture, coupled with the loss of the shock-absorbing meniscus cartilage, is a recipe for arthritis. The surgery that you were advised to have is called an osteotomy, in which the weight-bearing line of the joint will be realigned. A wedge of the bone is removed from the femur (thigh bone) or tibia (leg bone) to shift the weight-bearing line away from the arthritis side of your joint. By shifting the weight-bearing line, you shift the joint pressure away from the arthritic side, essentially taking weight off the painful side of your knee. A brace can be made that can accomplish this weight-shifting to ease the arthritic side of your joint. The brace is not as definitive in producing this effect as surgery. However, if the brace is effective enough to reduce your symptoms, you may be able to defer surgery for some time.