Ligament injury post TKR

[irismary]

Hi, I´m new to posting here, although I have found the forum very useful in the recovery from TKR and many questions answered - so perhaps someone can answer mine.

I had my RTKR here in Spain in April 2008 and everything went very well until December when the knee gave way laterally as I was going down a steep step. There was a horrible cracking noise and I saw stars for a few minutes. Once I had recovered myself, I realised that I could move the knee OK, albeit with some pain. I had some swelling for a few days, and as it seemed unstable, I used a knee brace to make it more comfortable.

The knee has never seemed the same since, I get a fair amount of pain, especially in bed at night, and it remains a little unstable. I saw my OS in Feb and he says that the prosthesis is OK but I have damaged the ligaments. My ROM is good at 125/0. He wants to wait until June (6 months after injury) to reassess and perhaps proceed to surgery to repair the ligaments if not settled by then.

Has anyone else on here had anything like this? If so, how did the surgery go? At the moment I can´t seem to see the wood for the trees and am fed up with the whole thing! I get more trouble now than before the TKR. And the strange gait has tickled up some back pain - Grrr!

 

[Jamie]

Welcome to the forum, IrisMary. So sorry to hear of your problems. A number of folks have strained ligaments, but I don't recall any recently (who might be posting) with anything as serious as what you describe after surgery....but there may be. Josephine, our forum nurse, should check in today and may be able to offer an opinion from a medical perspective. It is a good thing your new knee was not harmed and this is testimony as to how strong the joint is after surgery! Please take care of yourself and let us know how things go with you. We're here for support if you need it!

 

[Josephine]

You poor dear! What a dreadful thing to have happened. Can't say I've ever heard of a nasty accident like that before. You should certainly wait and see if the ligaments will heal on their own before delving into a surgical repair. But I admire the ROM you have despite the injury. You are obviously one very committed lady!


BTW, I think you are our first member from Spain, so very welcome a special to BoneSmart! A very dear friend of mine lives a few miles north of Malaga and her husband just had a hip replaced near there.

 

[irismary]

Thank you for your speedy replies and perhaps someone else will post later with something like the same experience.

Yes, I am very pleased with the ROM I have and consider myself lucky to have done so well. I had a very stormy recovery post op as my femoral block didn´t work, I went into shock, then when BP recovered and I started bleeding, my drain blocked! So my leg looked like and elephants and it was hard to get any flexion at all because of the swelling. This turned out to be fortunate as here in Spain it would appear that physio often doesn´t kick in until after the first post op appointment. You get only a sheet of exercises to do.Because I had virtually no flexion on discharge, I started physio after 2 weeks, an hour every day for 6 weeks and the OS says that my quads are better than before the op!

I live in Huelva Province, on the border with Portugal and I have nothing but praise for the health service here. The only slight problem is discussing health matters in another language - but I always go prepared with a written history and questions (in Spanish) and then if I get flustered I can say I´m sorry and I have written it all down in case I forget something and pass it to the doc.

I was very grateful for this forum and have learned a lot from other peoples experiences.

Jeanne

 

[Josephine]

Yes, my friend and her husband have found that but they got the services of a local lady who is actually a doctor who went with them every appointment and interpreted for them. She is a great friend now.