After partial knee replacement, correction of bowing

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I am 41 years old & ahd a partial knee replacement on May 17th. The Dr. said right after surgery that he was able to get full extension of my leg/knee. Prior to the surgery, (at least 2 years) I had bowing and severe lack of ability to straighten. I still cannot straighten it. I am confused as how he was able to do this when I was under anesthesia and is it just the habit? The Pt is quite painful and I am frustrated. Do you think this will improve in the next few weeks or should I have seen it by now?

-- Laura Wyeth (laurawyeth@ponyexpress.net), May 31, 2004

Answers

If your doctor got full extension in the OR, you should be able to slowly strech it out over the next few weeks. It is not uncommon to have some stiffness following surgery.

-- Marc W. Hungerford, M.D. (mhunger@jhmi.edu), June 03, 2004.

Is your surgeon supplying you with pain medicine to take during your physical therapy? Perhaps the pain is keeping you from wanting to move your leg to that degree. I was always told by the PT to take my pain medicine before I came so that they could get full use of my time and didn't have me in severe pain the whole time. My advice would be to ask your OS for pain medication that YOU KNOW helps you, not just something HE THINKS will help you in order to help you get to the point you need to be. If you are afraid to approach him about it then please talk to your PT about it and they should be able to help get you what you need. A lot of times not enough attention is paid to pain relief and everyone expects some pain but not the degree of pain that some of us are left with after a joint replacement. I hope you are where you want to be by now. Please feel free to write me at my email address if you need to talk further.

-- Sue Shields (sookie.sue@sbcglobal.net), August 17, 2004.

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