KNEE ARTHRITIS - General principles of managing Osteoarthritis of the knee :

Loss of motion - - Posted by Ilimp (Ilimp), 16 May 2004

I have had two "key-hole" surgeries on my right knee. The first in 1982 after years of "locking-up", The second was in 1999 as pain increased to the piont of sleeplessness. The second surgey was affective for about three months, pain is permanent now. My current concern is "hard tissue" swelling ?? The top of my Tibea has calcified to the piont that my knee will nolonger lock in the walking or standing position causing "falling off" my knee while standing and stumbling as if steping into a hole while walking. Both are excrutiating. I am 47 years old and have been advised that joint replacement is inevitable. Both my parents had miserable results from knee replacements, I would rather have a prosthetic leg. Any useful ideas
Posted by Beauzer (Beauzer), 16 May 2004

HI,

Sorry to hear things aren't going well.  When did your parents have their TKA's done?  The technology is continually improving and most people get rapid pain relief from it.

Amputation and prostheses are generally only for last resort.  Because the problem is your knee, you would have to have an above-knee amputation (AKA).  The energy expenditure to walk with an AKA prosthesis is about 10X normal, such that <50% of folks who get one are actually able to walk consistantly for any distance at all after getting one.  That and if you have chronic pain now, you're at increased risk of getting phantom limb pain after the amputation.  So basically all this means that you lose your leg, may still feel pain and may not ever be able to walk again.  Not really a good option unless all others are exhausted.

Good luck,
Danielle

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