Revision Arthrosurface Hemi Cap to a TKR

[rottenkid]

Hi I am one of the few people here on Knee Guru that had the Hemi Cap surgery. I am also from what I can tell the first one to have to get a revision to a TKR after the Hemi Cap. I went with the Hemi cap because it gave a chance to go back to a some what normal life. Like a lot of you out there kneeling and squatting became major issues right away. Stated off kneeling and crawling being painful. Squatting was next to cause pain and so on. I was never rough on my repaired knee, never did more to then what was allowed by doctor. Hemi cap surgery was back in Dec of 2007, normal recovery actually was ahead of schedule for awhile. My workers comp forced me back to work what I would say about five weeks to early. Almost immediately after going back to work I started to feel pain throughout my knee. See we don't have light duty I was a heavy equipment mechanic. I knew within hours of going back to work that this was going to be a long journey. I was either crawling under equipment or crawling under it to work on it.
 I complained of pain both lateral and medial sides from about 8 months post op on. Several runs of PT and cortisone injection followed the next couple of years. About a year ago my knee started feeling pretty painful almost daily. Another couple rounds of PT and pain killers but nothing was helping. Doctor said I need to get a TKR x rays showed bone on bone and thinning cartilage. Now because this is workers comp the speed of things getting done isn't the same as going through normal health insurance. I have learned to jump threw hoops and to be dedicated to the art of documentation. Being my fourth surgery on workers comp you learn the system. Of course workers comp denied the claim the first time said imaging was out of date and needed more up to date pictures. So another round of x-rays (16th round) and they show even more damage then the ones 6th months prior. Cartilage is almost now non existing. Entire knee is rattled with  arthritis and bone spurs. The six month wait was not only very painful but totally useless. Workers comp finally approved the TKR, doc is booked in advanced almost three months. Surgery is scheduled for July 20th, my Birthday.
 I will post from time to time leading up to the surgery. When I get closer and post op I will post more often. Here is to the pursuit of pain free knees
 RoTTeN KiD 

[rottenkid]

Surgery confirmed for July 20th. Pain has more then doubled in the last couple of weeks. Not sure if something else broke off or just the normal pain from knee getting more torn up. I started a diet a couple of days ago. I am doing 1400 calories for the next couple of months hoping to lose about 15 lbs before surgery. Since I can not do any exercises that will do a hole lot of good it mainly has to come from my diet. Low carb intake and as much veggies as I can stand. I am getting my house ready for my next surgery. New high rise toilets through out the house. Converting living room into a recovery room so I can avoid stairs for awhile. Getting some stuff done around the house that I wont be able to do after the surgery. When I get closer to my date I will start cooking meals and freeze them. Because of how much damage my knee has now I will not have pre op PT.
 If there is anyone out there that had a revision from Hemi Cap to TKR please let me know how it went

[TxsFireman]

Hey Rottenkid,

I got your message but when I try to reply it says that I'm not allowed to reply to personal messages for some reason.  I don't use this forum very often so I'm not sure what that is about.  I will un-hide my email address so you can email me directly if you want.  I was #14 for arthrosurface, but I was #2 to have it done on both knees, Left in March and Right in July of 2008.  It was terrible, I never had any relief and in 2010 I had them converted to unicompartmental knee replacements (3/2010-L, 11/2010-R).  I would say my right knee has done okay, not great but manageable.  My left knee has been a nightmare.  Since my left knee conversion I have had an I&D (7/2010) for what turned out to be a false positive or contaminated sample for staph, a revision of the knee replacement in 1/2011, complete with bone grafts, revealed a loose femoral component, and to top it all off, I found out last week that the femoral component has come loose again so I'm getting a total knee...yet to be scheduled.

I used a different orthopedic surgeon for the unicompartmentals because my first surgeon was in an accident and was out of work for a while.  The second doc said that on x-rays mine looked fine, but he was not so keen on the arthrosurface procedure any more.  He said that some patients just don't do well with the procedure for unknown reasons.  He did mention that it is routine now to include a plastic "button" or spacer on the tibia for the arthrosurface to rest on.  Neither of mine included that component.  In January of 2010 he scoped both my knees and saw lots of damage to the cartilage in the area of the implants.  He suggested unicompartmental knee replacements as opposed to totals because of my age, I will be 32 in June.  I have since found out that unicompartmentals are less common and more involved then total knee replacements.  Email me if you have any other questions.[/email]

[TxsFireman]

Hi, you contacted me about my hemi-cap surgery. I would like to talk to you about it more. You can email me at txsfireman@gmail.com. Mine failed too. Had to have both knees converted to PKR's. Hope to hear from you soon.