allergic reaction to bone cement
After 1 1/2 years of pain, swelling getting worse, I was tested for allergies. I will have to have another TKR custom without the bone cement. I am devastated at no one checking for allergies as I have numerous strange food allergies. I am told I may have to wait up to 10 mos for the revision as the FDA only approves a small number of these revisions per surgeons annually. This is because it's not a money maker for the hospitals, so it's limited. Another disappointment as now the hardware is coming loose from the bones and is unstable/more painful. Please pass on my bad experience so others don't suffer. Surgeons should be asking about allergies in this era of more and more people allergic to foods/environmental substances.
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Glad diet helped you too. There are so may types of eczema and it sounds like you husband has what my son does, Dysidrotic Eczema, DE which targets the hands and feet causes scaly, plaque like areaw which crack, bleed and peel. Unfortunately it is chronic and only treatments, like steroids which as we all know by know cause side effects like skin thinning and other issues with long term use are prescribed and of course good moisturizing and barrier ointments like Vaseline or Aquaphor (unless allergic to lanolin). My son has had digestive allergies since he was a baby, plus environmental allergies also. I would like my son to attempt an anti inflammation diet like I did with great success, perhaps it could help with DE, yet he is not willing to try that. Also I have not read where diet helps with this form. At least he is one of the lucky ones that doesn't itch from DE, but it does hurt when it cracks. The best site to identify all types of eczema, even rare ones, is dermnetnz.org. I have one common form of eczema, Allergic Contact Dermatitis, ACD, but my other two types are less common, one considered rare and it isn't even listed on US sites when you do an eczema search. The New Zealand site has the best collection of photos, your husband could search under DE and find others with his same symptoms. DE is considered a common form.
I find this discussion very interesting. I had a partial knee replacement about eight years ago that didn't help reduce my knee pain, so I had a total replacement in October, 2016. About three days later, my liver failed and then I went into multi-organ failure. Long story short, I was life-flighted to SLC for a transplant with only hours left to live. The transplant team couldn't find a reason for the liver failure but said it had to have been a drug interaction from the TKR. I've had many other surgeries with no issues. I've wondered if it could have been caused by the bone cement or the metal of the implant.
I just turned to this comment, and I hope you are feeling better.
Thanks, Cindi. My knee is horrible. The pain is actually worse than before the TKR. Thankfully, my new liver is doing well.
Hello, I tested positive for neomycin and
Methyl methacrylate.This is the glue that holds it together. Neomycin is antibiotic. With my surgery they used gentamicin, which is in same family.
Next month it will be 3 years and I am worse off than before! Not sure what I’m going to do.good luck.
I have the same allergy and
I need two TKRs. I have been told by 3 surgeons that they do not recommend cementless replacements. They all said if it doesn’t work, there is no going back…I would be in a wheelchair.
All I can do is try my best to take care of them and have alternative treatments done like nerve ablation.
Did you get a blood test for MMA?
I need to be tested and I don't want a patch test since I am missing lymph nodes on one arm and it always blows up when I do patch tests. Thanks in advance.
I’ve only had patch tests.
Thanks
Before going through with my knee replacement I told the doctor I wanted testing for all the elements in the implant. That is because I am a very allergic person having Allergic Contact Dermatitis, ACD, which previous testing with the 5 Day Extended Patch test identified almost a dozen elements, natural and synthetic.
He said the best test would be a blood test, but even though I was an allergic person and had positive results on my patch test for acrylics in glues and adhesives, Medicare didn't cover the expense for testing of the implant elements before it was put into your body.
I paid $600 for the blood test, the best money I ever spent. Surprisingly I wasn't allergic to the bone cement, but acrylics aren't in bone cement. However I tested positive to 5 metals. one being chromium, but I was not allergic to titanium, which is one type of metal implant, but chromium and cobalt are also a common implant. The surgeon explained if I went with titanium it is not 100% pure. It still has traces of other metals in the implant. There is also a titanium coated, Gold Implant it is called, which covers the chromium and cobalt, but then again the titanium contains traces of other metals. The implant ages with wear and tear and metal ions are released into the body over time causing allergic reactions. He explained that I could have a ceramic coated implant, but over time the ceramic coated implant also degrades from wear and tear and metals could be exposed yet I could expect many good years before this happened. Hesitant but scheduled surgery. Then I researched the ceramic coated implant he selected, it had a class action lawsuit against it because the bone cement in this implant was loosening, failing to adhere to the patients remaining bones. Go check out how many ceramic coated implants had winning class action lawsuits against them! I canceled my scheduled surgery. Maybe in a few years a better product will be available. At any rate I'd rather deal with the restrictions of my failing knees than living with the pain from an implant/implants my body is rejecting. If the implant would be removed I imagine I would have to be in a wheel chair.