Foot neuropathy (numbness and pain) after total knee replacement (TKR)

Posted by norby @norby, Nov 26, 2018

I had a right total knee replacement 10 weeks ago and came out of surgery with numbness and intermittent pain on the bottom of my right foot. However, I do have good motor function in that foot. The knee has been healing and with PT, movement is on track, but the foot is a major challenge. The foot pain at times is worse than any from the knee. I have been able to generally manage the foot pain with gabapentin. My surgeon believes this may resolve in time but may take from 6-12 months. However there is a possibility that it will never go away. Has anyone else experienced foot neuropathy following knee replacement? If so, what was your experience with it?

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I have the same circumstances except my neuropathy is tingling, cramping & sensations like a band tightening around my foot. My knee replacement surgery was 8 months ago so I’m loosing hope it will go away & want to search options to repair this if possible.

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@pestevenson

I have the same circumstances except my neuropathy is tingling, cramping & sensations like a band tightening around my foot. My knee replacement surgery was 8 months ago so I’m loosing hope it will go away & want to search options to repair this if possible.

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I also have that band tightening along the bottom of the foot, along with no feeling in the heel bottom and a slight warming prickly feeling at times. I am approx.5 months past TKR, If you come up with any answers please post it.

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@pestevenson

I have the same circumstances except my neuropathy is tingling, cramping & sensations like a band tightening around my foot. My knee replacement surgery was 8 months ago so I’m loosing hope it will go away & want to search options to repair this if possible.

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Welcome, @pestevenson, to Connect. We are a community of folks who want you to have the best quality of life possible. Without medical training, we rely on our experiences and willingly share them to perhaps help someone else. I am also a TKR patient and a parttime caregiver.

I must admit that we see quite a few posts almost daily with similar presenting symptoms as you have described. I have been studying the posts to try to be able to come up with a "1,2, buckle my shoe" approach.....sort of a one size fits all if you get my drift.

Guess what......it is just not that easy.
"Tingling to one person is a numbness to the next one."
"Cramping to the lady in the red dress is the same as 8-9 level pain to the gentleman in the khakis."
Ages are widely different, lifestyles are unique, pre-existing conditions are rarely the same, traumatic injuries are all unusually different.

As far as my TKR of 8 years ago.....and with a diagnosis of Small Fiber Neuropathy(SFN).....complete with enough pain for both knees....I can still tell a difference between the TKR foot and the SFN only foot.

Don't lose hope......just maybe stop worrying If you are not in pain. I see that @navyqas is joining the inquiry and has a similar experience.

What is the major discomfort that you would like to go away? What have you done to give it a "boot"? Medications, exercise?

May you be content and at ease.
Chris

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@pestevenson

I have the same circumstances except my neuropathy is tingling, cramping & sensations like a band tightening around my foot. My knee replacement surgery was 8 months ago so I’m loosing hope it will go away & want to search options to repair this if possible.

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I had the same as soon as I woke up after my TKR. Was told it was normal and give it a year. It was like sitting to long and your leg n foot fell asleep and you couldn't stand on it. Plus my toes were purple and sometimes white and foot was cold.
I kept pursuing it and about 7 weeks after my primary listened to me and did some testing, an ABI test (pressure test on legs). Which sent me to a cardiologist then angiogram proving my TKR surgeon pinched the main artery behind my knee and I had to have surgery to open up the artery (7 hours). I went back to my TKR surgeon all he said was "Why did you wait so long to get it fixed. You could of lost your leg." Said give it 3 + years before maybe I'd get rid of the numbness and tingling.
At least my artery is open and I have blood flow to my foot and my toes are not purple! And I have my leg!
But still have some numbness and tingling that might never go away because of nerve, cells and tissue damage.
Got luck and keep looking for answers.

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Yup. TKR 6 wks ago. Now have neuropathy and foot drop requiring a brace so I dont trip and fall. From my research a stretched nerve after surgery should take 6-12 weeks to resolve itself. Longer than that could very well be a lacerated nerve requiring 6-12 months or longer to heal and maybe not ever heal. So giving this another 6 wks...
But there gas been no improvement at all since day of surgery so I am not getting my hopes up for recovery. Is anyone else dealing with foot drop? What has been your experience and recourse??

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@janedahlgren

Yup. TKR 6 wks ago. Now have neuropathy and foot drop requiring a brace so I dont trip and fall. From my research a stretched nerve after surgery should take 6-12 weeks to resolve itself. Longer than that could very well be a lacerated nerve requiring 6-12 months or longer to heal and maybe not ever heal. So giving this another 6 wks...
But there gas been no improvement at all since day of surgery so I am not getting my hopes up for recovery. Is anyone else dealing with foot drop? What has been your experience and recourse??

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I did not get the foot drop,(did get the numb foot for 6 months now) but hearing about foot drop makes me think twice about getting my other leg TKR done. Problems with TKR aftermath is all news to me and I bet many others, also bet some people would not be getting the operation knowing all the possible ramifications. May not be so good for business? So now the TKR knee is fine and the foot is bad, a hell of a trade off!

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@navyqas

I did not get the foot drop,(did get the numb foot for 6 months now) but hearing about foot drop makes me think twice about getting my other leg TKR done. Problems with TKR aftermath is all news to me and I bet many others, also bet some people would not be getting the operation knowing all the possible ramifications. May not be so good for business? So now the TKR knee is fine and the foot is bad, a hell of a trade off!

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Well, maybe foot drop is as rare as the surgeon says it is. That's good, but doesn't help me. Good luck to you!

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Yes, I am experiencing this at the moment. I had knee replacement surgery going on 6 months ago. I am hoping it will go away. Has anyone overcame this problem? If so, what did you do?

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@may2383

Yes, I am experiencing this at the moment. I had knee replacement surgery going on 6 months ago. I am hoping it will go away. Has anyone overcame this problem? If so, what did you do?

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We need a little ray of hope, I have been asking your question for several months now and not ONE good news answer has come in. There must be many hundreds of TKR patients that have our foot numbness and not one has comeback with good news for us? What does that say for any hope to feel our foot again? So sad, if my foot numbness ever left I would be giving hope to so many people.

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Thank you for your reply. I am sorry that you are having this problem. Fortunately for me, I still have 95% of the feeling in my feet. I bother sporadically with the tingling in the toes. This often happens about 2 or 3 hours after I go to bed. It leaves and I can go to sleep. I guess it is a mild form of neuropathy. which started after I had tkr. I do have hope. I believe in the power of prayer and am doing just that, praying. I will pray for you as well. Thanks again.

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