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My Chronic Knee Pain After Replacement caused by Wrong Size Implant
Hello, I have seen a lot of people with similar stories of chronic pain in their knee after surgery. My experience: I had a total knee replacement although I worked very diligently with Physical Therapists and followed their instructions of what exercises to do at home, I still had extreme pain every single day.Upon the advice of my Ortho, I had a manipulation procedure. Skipping on past months, nothing I could do would relieve the pain short of sitting doing absolutely nothing but elevation and ice therapy. My pain management Dr. performed a Genicular Nerve Block. Nope, that didn't help either. Skipping on past months more, injections and water retention aspirations didn't help either. Then my Ortho decided the only thing to do was to go back in for a little clean up (knee scope). That proved to be not of any use. It's now two years after my replacement. Things are going downhill at a faster pace. I finally convinced another Dr. to take a look at me because you know the other Orthos don't like to take on someone else's patient. Anyhow, he immediately started ruling out causes. Tested for metal allergies, blood tests for infections, Nuclear Bone Scans for hard to detect hiding infections. You name it, he did it. I had mentioned to the original Dr. and now to this new Dr. that I had had such a hard recovery from the surgery that something right from the start must not have been right. My original Dr. thought it was laughable when I asked him a few times if perhaps the wrong sized implant was used . My new Dr. took that question much more seriously. The findings from all the tests showed loosing of the parts of the initial implant. My new Dr. also confirmed with imaging that the femoral part of my implant WAS too large for me causing the slow painful loosening of the whole knee implant. I was very wary but hey what could I do ? I couldn't live like that any more. Yes, I agreed to the revision and oh my gosh ! from the very first day I could tell a big difference in the way I felt. My pain and swelling was hugely less, my progress with Physical Therapy was 100 % more successful. My recovery time was amazing much easier. If there seems to be no explanation from your Ortho about very chronic pain my suggestion would be to find an Ortho to take your question of if you have the correct sized parts for your body implanted into you. You know how it is, when you go to your follow up appointments, you're always told that there's no problem everything looks like it's lined up just fine. I found out the hard way that this is a more common problem than you think. I couldn't believe it myself ! And yes, as some of you have stated my original Ortho Doc was as mad as a hornet that I had gotten another opinion. THAT'S YOUR RIGHT AND THEIR EGO PROBLEM. Hope my story might help someone else out their with unexplained seriously painful chronic pain on a daily basis.
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Glad it works for you. It makes me very sleepy and I have a hard time functioning the next day! 🥴
@apriljoy Please don't continue to suffer! This happened to me. First TKR was Summer 2018. After about 2 months I knew something wasn't right. Dr. kept stalling about recovery time and stages, said X-rays looked great, etc. I researched the hell out of other surgeons and found one in Boston who has become my hero. Since surgeons won't see you for a second opinion until you are one year out, I did have to wait (year of total hell). I saw surgeon 2 in Summer of 2019 and had my revision in October. The recovery from the revision was excellent because the surgeon did it right! But it was still one more recovery with all that entails.
I've since learned that surgeon 1 likely used a known-to-be-flawed DePuy Attune knee and installed it incorrectly to boot.
Don't stop searching for a good surgeon - are you near a teaching hospital? That's the best way to go, I think.
I wish you all the best - I've been where you are and it's the worst.
I couldn’t believe it when I read your message. I was 18 months postop when I finally found a doctor that was willing to go through with the testing that you went through.
Was all set to have it operated on at Beth Israel and Covid struck. The problem is after I had the imaging it was discovered that I might have a plate loose within the implant. Only way to tell for sure if they open me up.
It was a striker implant that was was used back in 2018 and there have been some complaints if you Google the information.
Surgeon number one who I only stayed with for three months due to insurance issues and my lack of trust in him denied any sort of further imaging beyond x-ray.
I went along with the two manipulations which did not work. 40 sessions of physical therapy then an additional 20 sessions after that was done equals 60 sessions altogether. Tons of money and co-pays to that particular hospital and then they try to charge me for the manipulation under anesthesia bill.
So you are talking to someone that is fed up, exhausted, tired of being in pain when walking up the stairs or walking more than 75 feet. I am having that second operation which is going to be an open lysis of Adhesions and possibly a brand new knee. I’m going to push for the brand new knee because I don’t want to fix the adhesion problem only to find out that it was a crappy striker implant that was causing most of the problem.
Best of luck on your journey. By the way this is my second year it will be two years in July that I was first operated on.
Last time I was measured I was only 85° flexion and I know that I’ve lost some of these months due to inactivity.
And no I never had a CPM machine. Fatal flaw in judgement. I had a pre-existing contracture before my initial surgery and the CPM machine I feel would’ve helped!!
@mel 726 If you want the name of my surgeon let me know. You will get no BS and a masterful revision.
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1 ReactionOh hi!
I know the name of your surgeon because you and I have spoken in the past. Thank you.
Glad to hear that you are feeling well.
CYD this sounds like my very own experience. What hospital was this done at if you don’t mind me asking?
I have posted below. I also had a doctor with an ego problem.
Doesn’t God give all of us an Ego?
This was in Ft. MYERS fl.
Omg, you've been through so much. It feels good when you find a doctor that really listens to you. Before my revision my flexion was only 70 no matter how hard I tried. I wish you all the best. My revision was Oct. 2019, just saw the Ortho and he tells me my maximum improvement will take about a year.
Thank you. I did already have my revision. It's going a lot better. Like you said now it just takes some time. Best wishes to you.