Constrained or hinged knee replacement anyone?

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booker81

booker81

Redneck Tech Girl
9 Years
Apr 18, 2010
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Mid-MI
Looks like I'm heading down this road....the knee reconstruction from 6 months ago has failed dramatically. Surgeon is out of the office til Tuesday, but went to the GP today to get another script for another immobilizer (and get another handicapped placard, and get the advice to use a wheelchair at work). We talked briefly about replacements, but it's not his call as he's not a surgeon.

Bugger.

FWIW, I'm just shy of 30, so it will be interesting if anyone will touch me with a pole surgical wise. I've pretty much blown all function in the "CL's" - ACL, MCL, LCL and PCL.

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Seems like they just want to do knee replacements for people that only have 20 years or less left. My Mom is 76 and in terrible shape. They are getting ready to replace her knees. She has needed them for about 10 years now. They must have a lifetime guarantee or something.
 
You got that right....a lifetime guarantee only if you have 20 or less to live
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At this point I'm curious if they will consider it, since we've exhausted all other means - PT and multiple surgeries.

If I have no options, then it's to a wheelchair. Yay.
 
My husband was 49 when he had his. He tore cartilage in his knee in an accident at work and the surgeon botched the scope on his knee. He was supposed to be back to work in 2 days ...

... 9 years later ...

Anyway, he had a second scope and the doc said the knee would have to be replaced. It was replaced, and they sawed off just a fraction too much of bone, getting his gait slightly off kilter but enough to really screw up his back. They were going to go in and "fix it" by putting some kind of extender in but none of DH's knee surgeries have ever been "successful" so he declined.

He will never go back to work.

Actually, his knee is fine. His back is what's screwed up now.

Doc was out of Covenant in Saginaw.
 
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Note to self. Stay away from Sag-nasty (sorry to those that live there
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Actually, Covenant had great food! When DH had his surgery, I had classes at Delta College nearby and I stopped for a morning visit and then said I was going to get breakfast on the way to class. The nurse in his room said "Try our buffet! It's great!" She was right. I had my daughter at Covenant and having a burger and vanilla milkshake right after labor was great! Well, I had to get iron and calcium SOMEHOW.
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St. Mary's is another story ...
 
Avoid it as long as you can. As with most joint replacements, they have to remove bone, and when you have two materials against each other, the softer one wears out... which is usually your bone. So after 20 years or so, if you use your limb with the replacement, the implant gets loose and you have to have it re done. You can only re-do it so many times before you have no more bone to anchor it to.

Best of luck.

Oh, and for which one to do, do the replacement that the surgeon you chose to use, does the most and has the most experience with. Like, go with a doc who's done 100 of the replacement you want. You'll have a better chance at a sucess than using that same skilled doc who implants a new and fancy "better for you" replacement that he's only done three times. Doc's are human too.
 
My son had his knee replaced about six years ago when he was in his early 30's. He was in a bad car wreck tore the cartilage in his knee. The reason he had it replaced was because he was in constant pain that could not be controlled with med. He could not be happier with it but the necessary physical therapy after the surgery is no picnic.
 
For a wee bit of background - I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, I don't create collagen properly (or at all sometimes). All of my joints dislocate/subluxate. I am on a constant pain medication to keep it under control, and have been for years. I had both knees initially operated on in 2000, tibial transfers on both. That "failed" in under a year, my knee caps start tracking any ol' way, including the sides of my legs (dislocating). It was beareable, not nice, but bearable with the pain medication, and I only fell about once a month or so. The rest of my ligaments were ok, but the patellar tendons were shot.

Until last April, when I slipped in the kitchen, and flipped my knee backwards about 8 inches. Both knees bend about 1-2" behind vertical, but that was pushing it... and destroyed it
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I finally had surgery in July after being shuffled by surgeons, to a guy who's done this particular surgery I needed hundreds and hundreds of times. I got a new tibial transfer, cartilage repair, shortening of the patellar tendon, and both LCL and MCL repair and shortening. Had some other minor stuff in there as well.

Surgery went great, knee felt great, lots more stable, no swinging off the side or back or front.

Until Monday night. I was sleeping and work up in horrible pain, reached down and the dang kneecap had dislocated out again. Pushed it back, but damage was done. Limping along until yesterday, the loss of that support has caused both MCL, LCL and PCL to fail, so pretty much, the knee is nonfunctional. When I lift my leg to walk, I can feel the joint separate out, and I can feel it come together, almost always wrong, and slide into place, or not. If I'm not careful when I sit and make sure my leg is properly positioned, I sit and instead of being 90 degrees bending and under my knee, the darn thing twists around into some nasty position that a human leg really, really shouldn't do. All that's holding my knee together now is my (already stretched out) ACL and my hamstrings which tie into the tibia. Doc yesterday doesn't think even a CTi brace would work now.

At this point, I'd be happy with knowing the replacement would fail eventually, just so I can get a few more years of being upright before giving in to being in a wheelchair.

I hate my body.
 

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