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Need TKR and had positive allergy testing / Bone Cement and Metals
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Jun 7, 2023 | Replies (157)Comment receiving replies
Just found this site am I glad! I can’t get any OS to take my allergy concerns seriously. Nor can I find any allergist or fern to do this testing? I live in the Tampa area. Can anyone refer me to a testing facility willing to do this for me? Drs r no help and o e seen 4 different surgeons. One told me about a lab in Ohio but couldn’t refer me to testing person told me to see pcp but she refused saying he’s the ordering physician, it’s his job not hers. Ugh!
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The name of the lab my test blood was ordered from for metals and bone cement is:
Orthopedic Analysis
2201 W. Campbell Park Drive
Ste 215
Chicago, IL 60612
http://www.orthopedicanalysis.com
It was not covered by Medicare or my supplement at a cost of about $600.00.
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I baffled as to why you can't get a doctor to prescribe testing.
My orthopedist was reluctant to have me get testing. He did tell me that the massive orthopedic hospital center in which he was only one of five surgeons did not do the testing. The center is part of a huge medical group covering our local area with every type of specialist and with a first class regional hospital, surgical centers and hundreds of doctors with offices. It also has multiple labs.
What he said I would need was not the 5 Day Extended Patch Test which had been given to me by my allergist a few years earlier, but a blood allergy test. He had to prescribe and order the test from a lab in Illinois. I had to pay in advance, Medicare doesn't cover this test. The test was ordered and the kit came to the orthopedic hospital and I believe it had to be frozen so a date was scheduled for my blood draw and then that was sent off to Chicago. It took several weeks to get the results. I wasn't surprised that I reacted to 5 metals, but was surprised I wasn't allergic to bone cement since I have other adhesive allergies.
This sounds cynical, but the only explanation I have as to why, even after I explained about my Allergic Contact Dermatitis, ACD, and positive test results to over a dozen contacts why I had to insist upon testing after he said I was ready for TKR is the Orthopedic Surgeons' have no incentive to order this test, if positive for allergens in the TKR or the cement then they don't have a patient. The ceramic coated implant he planned to use based upon my metal allergies I did my homework on and discovered a major class action lawsuit against it because the bone cement is failing to adhere to the implant. Also, even with coated implant, over time metals can escape. I am very happy the ceramic implants are working for some, but I plan to wait a few more years until desperate and make a decision based upon the history of each ceramic coated implant.