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Truth about Total Knee Replacements
Joint Replacements | Last Active: 2 hours ago | Replies (216)Comment receiving replies
@diana61 I hate this for you…
My wife who has been a fit, healthy woman started having some pain about 4 years ago had TKR SURGERY 3 years ago per the advice from a local surgeon who she previously worked for and respected
After the completed the procedure he came out to discuss that he straightened her knee somewhat. She has always had slightly bowed knees and I don’t believe that any of the bow was caused by arthritis so I feel from what I’ve learned is that the knee replacement should mirror the other knees natural alignment as much as possible
After 3 years she hates her new knee as it always hurts, CLICKS,
TIGHT BAND FEELING, TINGLING IN TOES, BASICALLY MISERABLE DUE TO PAIN
As many experience , her surgeon says everything is fine and dismissed her concerns
She feels like she’ll be miserable the rest of her life and no one can do anything to help (
Replies to "@diana61 I hate this for you… My wife who has been a fit, healthy woman started..."
@paint1956
There are several approaches to straightening the knee. For years and years the gold standard was mechanical alignment. Draw a straight line down the leg. Well, that is not how people are made. So newer approaches are kinematic, inverse kinematic and Functional. These are all designed to provide a knee that more closely resembles the natural alignment of the individual.
I suspect that your surgeon "straightened" her leg with a mechanical alignment. Mine did a Functional alignment and both of my legs seem similarly aligned.
I think it is time for a new surgeon. She needs a skilled and very experienced knee revision surgeon. Finding the right surgeon is difficult. My brother in the midwest went to a hip/knee surgeon who was highly respected; I went to what I believe is the best hip/knee surgeon in the US. We had our knee surgery one week apart two months ago. My brother's surgeon used a tourniquet and my brother had related pain for weeks; my surgeon did not. His surgeon did a traditional surgery, my surgeon went in with a mini midvastus method. I don't know what implant my brother had; I had the very, very rate bicruciate retaining implant which I wanted. I also don't know what type of alignment my brother had but I had a Functional alignment.
Most importantly, my brother had and has considerable pain and range of motion (ROM) in the 90s; I have had no post surgical pain and in my first week of physical therapy my therapist measured my ROM at 122.
I also suspect that her surgeon is a traditionalist. I have posted my criteria in several posts in this forum. My surgeon, who met all of my criteria, spends about 20% of his time doing revisions. You need a surgeon like that. As @gravity3 said, you need to see another surgeon. But I don't see it as a second opinion. I see it as a first opinion. She goes into that surgeon and explains her symptoms but she doesn't blame her original surgeon, she just has a bunch of symptoms and has heard great things about this new surgeon and wonders if a revision would help. My concept is that she wants to get around the band of brothers.
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@paint1956
Time for a second opinion? There are a number of orthopedic surgeons who will do revisions if that is indicated. I imagine there are a number of people on this site who can recommend someone for a consult if that is what you decide to do. What state are you in?