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One knee replacement and will never have another one!
Joint Replacements | Last Active: 4 days ago | Replies (95)Comment receiving replies
Were you tested for allergies to the components in the knee implant? I was scheduled for replacement surgery, but I do have Allergic Contact Dermatitis, ACD and pay attention to all my contacts, avoiding my allergens. Although metals allergies did not show up on my 5 Day Extended Patch Test for ACD before implant surgery I asked for current allergy testing as that test was years earlier. My ortho told me a blood test would be the most accurate, but Medicare would not pay for this $600.00 test. So I paid the $600 and my Springfield, MO ortho sent the blood off to a lab in Illinois. It came back showing allergies to 5 metals, but not to titanium which the implant was made of. However he pointed out pure titanium is not pure. It contains traces of other metals and over time this implant erodes with wear and releases these metals into our blood. There are ceramic coated implants, however over time the coating wears and metals are released. I canceled my surgery.
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@gardeningjunkie I don’t blame you for canceling your surgery. If someone can’t give you a 100% guarantee about those metals, I wouldn’t take the chance either. When I was a teenager and had my ears pierced, my ears would always become red and swell from cheap earrings. My surgeon had a paper that you had to sign if you thought you had a metal allergy. I told him about the earrings and he sent me for “metal allergy testing”. They tested for a lot of different types of metals along with an alergy to the bone cement. The allergy to nickel came out *very* high and a few other metals came back with a small reaction but the allergist told me that the smaller reactions were nothing to worry about. I don’t know what the replacement is made from but the brand name is “Smith and Nephew”. That replaced knee still bothers me……..it’s not pain-free! Glad that you canceled your surgery because if you ever had a reaction, they would have to take the replacement out and start all over again!