Has anyone been diagnosed with Patellar Clunk syndrome? If so did you

Hello Irene. I’m not sure if my resection and resurfacing of my Knee Replacement was called a Patella Clunk.

I went back to my surgeon at three and six months post op and said that the pain is horrendous catching feeling.
Surgeon said I needed to wait a year and things should settle down. !

I went back to my job which involved a lot of walking and the use of stairs and grinned and bear the pain.
Finally at 12 months he said he will do a resurfacing of the patella, which after my research should have been done in the first place, due to the teachings of his senior orthopaedic mentor who is one of the best in Sydney Au.

So would this be considered Patella Clunk?
How long ago did you have your TKR?

Also after many many falls and broken bones, i was measured by a machine in hospital that measures hip to ankle length.
My TKR is longer by nearly an inch !
I now can no longer return to this orthopaedic doctor nor recommend him.

How much pain are you in, if you don’t mind me asking .

Thank you for responding ozgal. Patellar Clunk syndrome is when the soft tissue of the synovial capsule of the knee joint overgrows and creeps into the space inside the condylar box and I interferes with smooth movement of the tibial prosthetics stem. It's very uncomfortable and such a gross feeling and causes severe inflammation after just 10 minutes of activity. My surgeon just keeps telling me it's just the metal and plastic parts rubbing together and pretty much says I need to ignore it like his other patients do. By the 3rd post op check up I was crying in his office trying to to get him to understand my frustration and he told me I should see a psychiatrist for depression. I said I'm generally a very happy person but feel unless this goes away I'll never be able to get back to playing pickleball. I checked with my primary care doc and she said I don't need a psych eval, I need a 2nd opinion with a different orthopedic. So I did that and got this diagnosis. I went back to my Ortho a month later and asked him if I could have patellar Clunk and he said not likely because it usually doesn't come in until 7 months after TKR. He finally relented and said I most likely have scar tissue that is getting caught up in the parts but he won't go in surgically for another 3 or 4 months to give the TKR more time to heal. I'm going for a 3rd opinion on 11/6 with a different local guy because the 2nd opinion guy is out of state. I had my patella resurfaced and a patellar "button" placed but I had arthritis confirmed in that spot prior to surgery. Some docs do t do it if it looks healthy at the time of surgery. I sure hope you surgery remedies your pain. It sucks when we don't get the good results most get. 😥

My Ortho said revision surgery may do away with clunking, it didn't. My left knee has been clunking for more than six years following the original TKR and remains following a revision. Prior to a TKR on my right knee I asked "will it clunk llike my left knee?" My Ortho said "Yes." Well guess what, my right knee post after 3 1/2 years does not clunk or click or anything. After several surgeries and recoveries I feel the Ortho's can do only so much and much is left to chance. Good luck.

Yes but was your clunking due to the space in the condylar box filling up with synovial tissue, or other soft tissue impingement? What did they find during your revision and what was done? Did they open up the knee fully or do it arthroscopically? We're any of the four prosthetic parts replaced or did you just have abnormal tissue removed that was being impinged in the parts?

Can you describe what the clunking feels like. Does it affect how stable you feel about your knee? I had my TKR Feb of 23 have had a very slow recovery. I had mua in May of 23 and it did not improve. My 2nd 2nd opinion surgeon said I probably had damage to my pcl ligament which is contributing to the instability i feel and my quad muscle is weak and wants me to exercise it diligently. He wants to see me in 4 months to determine if revision is warranted.
My gait has improved but can't do steps without hanging on to a bannister.

If you still have your PCL then you probably don't have patellar Clunk. It happens almost exclusively to patients who have a posterior stabilizing prosthetic which is used when both the ocl and the ACL are removed. Those are the 2 ligaments deep inside the knee that controls forward, backward and rotational movement. Posterior stabilizing prosthetics have a much deeper condylar box than the other type and that is when the abnormal tissue can grow into the extra space and interfere with smooth movement of the tibial stem of that piece of the prosthetics. My clunking is a deep very hard and uncomfortable sort of hard knuckle crack. Except you get no relief when the crack comes cuz it happens with every single step or bend if the knee at about 45 degrees of flexion. Like a pebble in your shoe that you can't do anything about. I also get sharp shooting pain on the inner part of my knee where the capsule was cut to gain entrance. That is a pain separate from the clunk pain and is due to scar tissue catching. I don't really have instability and I also have very weak quads on that side compared to my other leg that I am working on strengthening. I am hoping my symptoms will lesson over time because I am scared to have more surgery unless I can get a very confident guarantee it will make it better.