Who has experience with very tight hamstring and painful hamstring aft

@jps1313 , as I understand the doctors, specific nerves were not operating enough to supply one of the muscles in my calf and one in my quads (L4). MRI showed atrophy and fat infiltration, basically the muscles dying. Other muscles were having to compensate. Obviously this didn't just happen, but the docs believe that just the trauma of surgery and my gait change was enough to start causing the considerable pain I was having iny calf. All weird but I have a plan forward. And yep, it includes back surgery. Ready to get the show on the road. Best to you!

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the article on tourniquet use during TKRs from the NIH. I don't know what tranexamic acid is, or possible side effects. The article makes clear what I experienced, there is substantial pain and bruising from using a tourniquet.

That said, it's a small price to pay so the surgeon has an unobstructed area to operate. I only wish he had told me. the bruising appeared on the second day after surgery and was shocking to see! That said, I've been extremely happy with the results of my TKRs, almost 4 years old now!

Thanks for the info.

Joe

That is a trade off. My surgeon did a mini midvastus cut rather than a subvastus cut for that very reason. I was not only in pain from bone on bone arthritis but I was severely misaligned and if I stepped the wrong way, a very, very sharp pain ran down my leg. In addition, I wanted and my surgeon is one of the few who can provide, a bicruciate retaining implant (BCR) which unlike 99+% of the TKR population, preserves and protects my ACL and PCL. But the surgery for that is more complex. He also did a Functional alignment which is more complex than kinematic or inverse kinematic as it involves not only bones but soft tissues and far more complex than traditional mechanical.
Not only did I have no post surgery pain but in the third week, when I started physical therapy, my therapist measured my ROM at 122 and my extension at flat. I had absolutely zero problems from the tranexamic acid use.

I was chatting one day with my surgeon and he told me his three principal requirements for a patient to want in a knee replacement surgeon: (1) extensive experience doing the exact same procedure; (2) great hands; and (3) a great mind.

A patient can check for #1. #2 takes care of the field of vision; #3 is the hardest to predict. If one can have all three, one has the best chance at a successful recovery.

I have really tight hamstrings. I am 1 year and 2 weeks tkr. Still very tight. I have done all the exercises. No help.

I'm still experiencing very tight hamstrings from surgery on 02/18/2026. I've started PT and have a series of exercises to do at home, including hamstring stretches.
As I mentioned previously I had
had tight hamstrings before surgery. The PT thinks part of the problem is I walked in a semi-crouch because of the pain in my knees. I had my meniscus removed in 09/2020 and it was painful a lot g time.
I also had surgery for a broken femur and a new hip put in at that time that left my left leg one inch shorter than my right which I would guess adds to my right leg problems.
Anyways, I have a hard time thinking stretching is going to undue 5 years of tight hamstrings.
Any thoughts?