Partial Knee Replacement Allows Mertztown Man to Win Marathon

Pain and misery defined Christmas 2021 for Tom Reinert. The veteran marathon runner was so hobbled by pain in his left knee he had to use a cane.

The next month, orthopedic surgeon Wayne Luchetti, MD, with Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute, performed a partial knee replacement. These days, Reinert isn’t just running, he has left his knee pain in the dust.

“The knee has become almost a nonfactor in my life again,” says Reinert, who lives in Mertztown, Berks County, and works at Air Products in logistics. “I can pretty much do whatever I choose to do and don’t even think about the knee.” 

Reinert, 61, ran cross-country in high school. He returned to running in 2008 to lose weight. He shed nearly 100 pounds; a routine became a lifestyle. His 5Ks and half-marathons blossomed into marathons. Reinert excelled, completing one marathon in under three hours in 2019 and qualifying for the 2020 Boston Marathon, which was ultimately canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He ran up to 80 miles a week.

As Reinert trained for the Boston Marathon in early 2020, his left knee felt tender. He reduced his mileage, but when it increased in his training up to the 2021 Atlantic City (NJ) Marathon, the pain became unbearable. Injections and physical therapy didn’t work. Reinert, who was seeing orthopedic surgeon Nicholas Slenker, MD, with Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute, was referred to Dr. Luchetti, who thought the new patient was a perfect candidate for a partial knee replacement. Reinert met all the criteria, the doctor says. He had (severe) arthritis in just one side of his knee, good pre-op motion and intact ligaments.

The partial knee replacement, Dr. Luchetti explains, isn’t nearly as invasive compared to a full knee replacement. Only the inner half of the knee is replaced, which means less scar tissue and bleeding. Most patients return home the same day as surgery and have a quicker recovery and shorter rehab time.

“They basically have all their own parts, except for the inner part of the knee,” says Dr. Luchetti, who sees patients at LVPG Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Bethlehem and Wind Gap. “It feels, when all is said and done, more like the knee you were born with than a full knee replacement.”

Reinert felt if the surgery went well, he “had the strength and mental fortitude to come back from this.” He did three months of physical therapy at Rehabilitation Services—1621 N. Cedar Crest in Allentown. He started lifting weights at the gym and did exercises designed by his longtime personal trainer, Ryan Neff at SOLDIERFIT in Trexlertown, to strengthen the knee. He ran on an elliptical machine before pounding the pavement.

Attitude goes a long way in recovery, Dr. Luchetti says. Reinert, the doctor adds, approached his “like an athlete. He worked really hard and kind of flew through it.”

“It took probably six to eight months until I was back to running anything of substantial distance, 10 miles or more,” Reinert says. The first 10-mile run was pain-free. That made him think he could resume a normal training cycle and do marathons again.  

His first marathon back, October 2023’s Atlantic City Marathon, felt like the very first one, Reinert says. At the starting line, nervous energy raced through him. Then, he ran. His confidence grew. At mile 18, the knee felt fine. He kept pushing. When he saw the finish line, Reinert knew: He was back.

And how: Reinert finished first in his age group. He plans to run two more marathons, including the Boston Marathon in April 2025.

“It’s an incredible outcome,” Dr. Luchetti says.

Partial knee — and most full knee — replacement patients easily return to being active, he adds, with sports like pickleball, skiing and half-court basketball. Marathon running is not on that list. “He’s aware that he’s going to wear out, and when that time comes we’ll have to redo it,” Dr. Luchetti says. Today, Reinert runs 40 to 60 miles a week during a longer training period. “I’m not looking to do sub-three hour marathons anymore,” he says. “I’m OK just running for health.”

A partial knee replacement has made Tom Reinert’s life whole again.

“It allowed me to return to what I was normally doing,” he says. “Anybody contemplating it, jump in with both feet. It’s life-altering. Knowing how miserable I was for those few months prior to surgery and how good I feel again now — yeah, no question.”