5th surgery on knee in 4 years
My husband is 59, had both knees replaced in 2020, left knee was great. Right knee has been nothing but an issue. He was bowlegged his whole life so his legs always bowed out, TKR on the left corrected that but the right no such luck. 6 months after the original TKR on the right, he had a revision and they replaced the spacer, still didn't correct the varus deficiency he had. The original surgeon said his LCL was the issue and was to lax to support the knee but he didn't want to do a LCL reconstruction, nor did he want to go to a hinged replacement. We found a revision specialist and in 2022 they did a LCL reconstruction with a donor tendon and replaced the femoral prosthetic as well as the spacer, knee still has some varus thrust but was better.
Fast forward to March of this year, lots of pain and varus deficiency was bad, they opted to do another LCL reconstruction using a larger, thicken tendon. Leg looked great until he started weight bearing, varus thrust is back and the worst it has ever been and now he is scheduled for a RTKR and converting it to a hinged knee replacement. Doctor doesn't like the hinged because of his younger age and activity level but at this point, it is the only option left. They will completely bypass the ligaments and put longer stems in, said the most common issue is aseptic loosening. The doctor said he really won't lose ROM but it will just put extra pressure on the bones.
Has anyone had a hinged replacement and if so what was the difference between it and the primary, both in regards to rehab and long term success? They will keep him overnight so that he can be on IV antibiotics, if all goes well he will go home the next day with PT to start 3 days after surgery, so in that aspect it doesn't seem all that different than the primary TKR.
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Be aware of stem pain
Thank you, we had heard that could be an issue!! Sure wish we had another option but unfortunately this is the last option.