Femur Component of Knee Replacement Loose

Posted by melcpa86 @melcpa86, May 3, 2019

My knee replacement is barely a year old. I have had pain that has limited my standing to 10 minutes and walking to 30 for 10 months. At first, I was told I had excess scar tissue and had a second surgery to remove that. However the same standing and pain persisted. Then I was told I had nerve damage. Now I’m being told that the femur component is not secured to the bone behind my knee and there is a gap where bone cement should be. Has anyone else had a loose femur component? My understanding is it’s mostly the tibia component that becomes loose.

What does a revision to a loose femur component entail?

Also - how would bone cement behind your knee just not be there?

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

@melcpa86 You're describing the types of pain I've been experiencing. My surgeon looks at my xray while I'm standing still of course and says it looks fine. What kind of exam did you have to show it was loose?

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I am 13.5 months out from the replacement surgery. 2 months ago he was adamant I had nerve damage and wanted to start me with a pain management doctor. I’m only 55. My GP said don’t do that. He kept telling me that he couldn’t tell if it was loose until I was at the one year mark. I’ve had 2 xrays and a bone scan prior to a year. The bone scan showed increases uptake - but he still wouldn’t tell me it was loose. I insisted on another appointment at over the year mark. That was two days ago and he took more xrays and during that appointment he finally told me it’s loose.

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Hi @melcpa86 - I am so sorry to hear about your TKR recovery with the loose joint. I'm pretty sure I saw some other posts here with that problem. I'm going to ask @cobweb @ellerbracke and @johnbishop if any of them remember this conversation. It must be just heartbreaking to have gone through a whole year and get this news. Is there any discussion about you being allergic to the bone cement? I am wishing you the very best.

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@debbraw

Hi @melcpa86 - I am so sorry to hear about your TKR recovery with the loose joint. I'm pretty sure I saw some other posts here with that problem. I'm going to ask @cobweb @ellerbracke and @johnbishop if any of them remember this conversation. It must be just heartbreaking to have gone through a whole year and get this news. Is there any discussion about you being allergic to the bone cement? I am wishing you the very best.

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Hi @melcpa86 and @debbraw, there is another discussion by @gardeningranny where she mentions a loose metal implant in the tibia causing pain. The group and her post is listed below.

> Groups > Joint Replacements > Pain following a Right Total Knee Replacement
-- https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pain-following-a-right-total-knee-replacement/?pg=1#comment-242124

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@debbraw

Hi @melcpa86 - I am so sorry to hear about your TKR recovery with the loose joint. I'm pretty sure I saw some other posts here with that problem. I'm going to ask @cobweb @ellerbracke and @johnbishop if any of them remember this conversation. It must be just heartbreaking to have gone through a whole year and get this news. Is there any discussion about you being allergic to the bone cement? I am wishing you the very best.

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I had the allergy testing done in August. I’m not allergic to bone cement.

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@debbraw

Hi @melcpa86 - I am so sorry to hear about your TKR recovery with the loose joint. I'm pretty sure I saw some other posts here with that problem. I'm going to ask @cobweb @ellerbracke and @johnbishop if any of them remember this conversation. It must be just heartbreaking to have gone through a whole year and get this news. Is there any discussion about you being allergic to the bone cement? I am wishing you the very best.

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my problem is do i do surgery with an anuyerism problem . Surgeons wont answer the question. So i keep going

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Hi @melcpa86 - I'm glad you had the allergy test for bone cement, because like you, I was wondering how can the bone cement not be there? I wish I could help with an answer to your question, but I don't have any experience with TKR revisions. I'm going to share a discussion here on Connect about a TKR revision that may interest you. At least it may point your toward some people who have more experience with this. Best of luck...
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/life-after-a-tkr-revision/?utm_campaign=search

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