Burning after total knee replacement

Posted by jetter @jetter, Feb 12, 2019

why does it burn after total replacement?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Joint Replacements Support Group.

@equus111

I am 12 weeks out have 133 flex and 1degee extension and was doing great. I played gold st week 11 and developed patellar tendinitis I was worried it was infected or dislocated as the pain was worse than after surgery. Saw the surgeon had exray and bloodwork all normal. Said it works take 4 weeks to improve got a brace and had to “ lay-off “ certain exercises. The burning is intense when I try to put weight on the leg and when I extend to do quad sets. If no improvement in 4 weeks will explore if it is a nerve problem under the kneecap. Very depressed as the recovery was so good. I am 69 and was hoping to be back in my horses...

Jump to this post

@equus111 Setbacks can be so discouraging, but it sounds as if yours won’t last too long. Don’t be depressed, if you were doing well before, this is more than likely just a blip in your recovery.

@nancyrita13 As I have mentioned in prior posts I had really intense pain until about 6 or 7 weeks post-surgery. It was so severe that it brought tears to my eyes, but it suddenly went away, almost miraculously, and it was smooth sailing from that point on. I don’t recall if it was burning pain or not, just that it was intense, so hopefully yours too will get better almost overnight as mine did. During that time my surgeon was seeing me almost weekly and he did X-rays but nothing showed. We still have no idea what the cause of the pain was!
JK

REPLY
@equus111

Meant to write golf ! 18 holes walked most of course. My surgeon saw me after negative blood work and X-ray. He told me it was Patellar tendinitis and would take about a month to heal

Jump to this post

@equus111 - LOL... I should have known it was golf! It sounds as if you are doing great. Sometimes we just have to have patience. Dang it! Will you let us know how things progress as you wait out the month?

REPLY
@irol

Jetter, Hi and anyone with burning. I am 9 weeks out and trying to get my quads strong enough to lift my foot off the bed when I contract them and straighten the leg, pressing the knee down to the bed by contracting the quads. When I do that, and when I do a straight leg raise while contracting really hard to keep the leg straight at zero degrees, I get intense burning on the inside of my knee towards the top. The PT's don't know what to say but want me to continue because Ineed to wake up my quads more and get them stronger. Does anyone know anything more about if the burning sensation is a bad sign for damaging the knee or what?

Jump to this post

I am 12 weeks out and same issue. I had no burning until week 10 and doc thinks it is patellar tendinitis from over use. I think it has something to do with the saphenous nerve. The burning is intense and spreads throughout the patella, it has now affected my gait. I have full extension since week 4 and 133 flexion since same . Was able to walk 2 miles each day until this suddenly happened. Blood work and xrays normal . Anyone else have this ???

REPLY

Nerves cut when you had TKR. I too had same issue. So nerve is issue. One year later still burning so I finally had a nerve ablation and have felt 100% better.

REPLY

How does moving a nerve happen? With more surgery?

REPLY
@lizzyisme

Nerves cut when you had TKR. I too had same issue. So nerve is issue. One year later still burning so I finally had a nerve ablation and have felt 100% better.

Jump to this post

Hi how was it diagnosed? Any other symptoms other than burning ?

REPLY

what is a nerve ablation and how is it done? Painful? Recovery?

REPLY

I had a nerve ablation (procedure called Coolief) 3 weeks ago due to continued pain after partial knee replacement almost 2 years ago. It is basically burning the nerve endings. I won't lie, the procedure was quite painful. I had more pain for a couple of days afterwards. Now, however, my knee feels better than it has in 2 1/2 years. I still have some pain occasionally if I step wrong or move different but for the most part am pain free and have been able to resume prior activities. I'm very pleased with the outcome.

REPLY
@pmac

How does moving a nerve happen? With more surgery?

Jump to this post

Hi @pmac - Welcome to Connect! I'm wondering - have you had a TKR? It sounds as if you may be wondering about nerve ablation. Could you say more about what's going on?

REPLY

Eleven weeks out from TKR. And yes, I was wondering about the ablation as one person stated they had had it done following burning pain after their TKR.

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.