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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Rare Complications of Knee Surgery

By Dr. Stefan Tarlow

On rare occasions a patient may have complications after knee surgery; however, this happens less than 2% of the time. Sometimes the knee joint may become infected. Even more rarely, heart attack or stroke may occur.

Chronic illness increases the likelihood of complications and may cause rehabilitation to take longer. Additionally, a chronic illness may prevent the patient from recovering completely.

A fairly commonly experienced complication of knee surgery is clotting in the veins of the leg. You can avoid this by simply following your orthopedic surgeons orders. You will be sent home with instructions to elevate your legs on a regular basis, perform prescribed exercises, perhaps take blood thinning medications, and perhaps even use support stockings. Be sure to follow these instructions to the letter, and you should have no problems.

Sometimes a part of the replacement may wear or loosen. This is quite unusual because the parts of the replacement are very well made, and the surgery is performed very carefully.

After surgery, you can generally expect to have a ROM (range of motion) of 115. This may vary, however, for a number of reasons. First, if you had very severely limited ROM (range of motion) before the surgery, it will likely remain a bit limited after the surgery. Additionally, on rare occasions, there is some scarring of the tissues of the knee or, even less often, there may be damage to the nerves and blood vessels.

Click here for more on knee surgery complications .

Your orthopedic surgeon will be happy to discuss all of your concerns with you before you have your surgery.

What You Should Know About Home Recovery

The vast majority (over 90%) of fixed unicompartmental as well as mobile bearing knee replacements function well for as much as ten years. You have a great deal of influence on the successful outcome of your surgery. By paying close attention to your orthopedic surgeons instructions, you can increase the life of your implant.

How To Take Care Of Your Wound

You can expect your wound to be closed by either exterior sutures or staples or interior sutures. In the case of exterior closure, your orthopedic surgeon will want to see you again in a few weeks for removal. If you have subcutaneous sutures, you will not need to return for removal. They will dissolve on their own.

Keep your wound dry until it is completely healed. You can place a bandage over it to protect it from rubbing against your compression hose or your clothing.

Stay Active

After your surgery, be sure to do the exercises your orthopedic surgeon prescribes. At first you may feel some pain during exercise and also at night when you are resting. This is to be expected and will subside. You will be able to resume your regular activities 3-6 weeks after surgery. - 23211

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1 Comments:

At September 17, 2019 at 10:25 PM , Blogger GotpainAZ said...

Awesome article, I really enjoyed this and it help put things in perspective for me. Thanks a lot! Knee Pain Doctor in East Mesa

 

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