Pain in knee 8 mos. after ACL recon.

[elly_rad23]

Hi everyone!

I am 8 months out from ACL reconstruction/ removal of torn meniscus in my left knee. I had a very good recovery, with a lot of progress very quickly. Over the past month, though, my knee has started swelling after even the slightest workout, and becomes sore and stiff. Over the past week, its progressed from more of a sore, dully, achey pain to a shooting pain in my knee when I try to go up stairs or take turns.

Has anyone experienced something like this? My dad mentioned trying a cortisone shot to see if that would help with the swelling and inflammation, but now that I have this shooting pain in my knee I'm a little more concerned. Is it possible that some part of my graft has come loose ( a screw or something, maybe?) ?

Thanks!

[Ironjill]

Sorry to hear things have taken a downturn. I had a similar experience in my PCL MCL reconstructed knee and it was due to a loose body in the knee. This only happened 5 weeks ago and right now the loose body (at one point I could feel it) has either moved to a place whe it is not causing issues or has dissipated in the body. Either way the pain has gone and my knee is improving and getting back towards where it was at prior to this hiccup.

Saw the ortho and plan is to leave alone unless it rears it's ugly wee head again. Maybe you have something similar, so should be worth checking in with your surgeon. I was just relieved that there is no issue with the grafts and surgical work.

Good luck.

[Rennschnecke]

I had sharp shooting pains after being discharged by my OS for a good recovery post-ACLr.  It eventually turned out to be due to disintegration of articular cartilage.  My PT thought it might be meniscus problems.

Certainly worth seeing your OS again to check things out.

[Kaputt_Knee]

Get your surgeon to check out your postereo-lateral corner (back outside of the knee joint) as this can cause the type of pain your are describing. It is an area often overlooked by even very good and highly experienced orthopaedic surgeons as the damage there is masked by the other damage caused in your original accident.

Mine started as periodic pain about 7 or 8 months after the reconstruction and got progressively worse. When I went to another surgeon (my other surgeon ignored my reports on the pain) he immediately put his finger on the spot. When he went in to carry out an ACL revision, he found that a complete rupture of the LCL and a fracture of the fibula head had been missed in my original diagnosis. In my case the pain was being caused by the scar tissue building up around the incorrectly healed fracture. This was squeezing the nerves causing the pain, which increased as the scar tissue built up.

Since my revision and the sorting out of the PLC I have had absolutely no pain issues at all.

Sue