Reject your Knee........

[Jayne]

Has anyone ever heard of someone rejecting their knee? I often wonder about that because it is a foreign object in your body. Just wondering or maybe I'm over thinking.
Jayne

 

[Jamie]

Jayne.....You are worrying needlessly. I don't think it's possible for your body to "reject" the metal and plastic knee joint that is implanted. It is inert - not tissue. It is possible to have a reaction to certain hardware if you have metal allergies. If you think you might have a metal allergy, you just need to notify your surgeon and have some tests done first. I hope this eases your mind.

 

[kangaroo]

"Rejection" occurs when cells in the body recognise other foreign cells as being different and so the immune system goes into battle ground to get rid of the invading cells. In terms of bone marrow transplants, serious illness (or even death) can occur as a result of this battle....its called graft versus host disease, where the graft (donor marrow) battles with the host (the patients own cells) . Eventually either neither cells win ( and the patient dies) or the cells give in to each other and the new cells are allowed to exist...this mar be dependent on anti rejection drugs There are other forms of rejection where the marrow just fails to reproduce to mention just one....I am not an oncologist but this is my understanding based on bone marrow transplants (solid organs such as livers etc may well be diffeent.)
AS our prosthesis are made from not living, highly stable materials there is no cell interaction and therefore no battle, from a rejection point of view. As I understand it there can be wear issues, or allergy issues, ...this is slightly different ...
Some people have expressed concern about having a foreign body inside them and feeling uncomfortable with this.....personally i can trade pain for a foreign body...
Rachel

 

[Peta]

I absolutely LOVE my little "foreign body" - I don't even know she's there..............!

Peta

 

[Josephine]

Research into inert materials suitable for implanting into human bodies has been on going for almost 100 years! The advances have run alongside advances in the metals and plastics industries and in the science of metallurgy.

The first material identified as being inert by the standards of that day was stainless steel. It is still stainless steel but not the kind that your saucepans are made of! This is type ENJ58 and has carefully specified amounts of the different minerals in its mixture.

Next came cobalt chrome and then titanium. All have been subjected to extensive laboratory testing and also have the product of many years of use behind them. They are used for plates, screws and rods as well as joint replacements.

Alongside these the use of plastics and ceramics was also researched, used and data collected. The plastic is a very refined, very specific type. Don't know too much about the ceramic, only that by the time it was included, the industry had a significant collection of protocols on how to evaulate its inert-ness.

Hope this reassures you some.

 

[Jayne]

JO!
Thank you and all of you for giving me the scoop! I guess I just have too much times to wait for surgery and thinking too much!
Jayne