# Replacement knee surgery



## javea (Jun 8, 2007)

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has had knee replacement surgery.

My wife suffers from osteoarthritis in both knees. She initially had some injections given by her consultant (privately) which did help for a few months but after the second injection the effects were not as great.

Her consultant does not want her to have knee replacement surgery until she is 70 in about 3 years time, presumably because they don't last that long.

She hears some horror stories about the operation which has not resulted in the desired effect. Could anyone who has experience of this surgery kindly give us the benefit of your experience and results of the replacement.


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## CliveMott (Mar 10, 2008)

I only have 1 good leg due to polio as a child so my right leg and especially the knee has done most of the work for over 60 years. I have already had one "clean out" job on my good knee some 6 years back and now its playing up again. I hope that it will be just like last time. But the time will come when something more durable is required. Knee replacements have not historically been as reliable in outcome as hips but of late different techniques have become available. Techniques like just fitting a new lining to the existing knee joint in stead of total replacement. So anyone with personal experience of knee operations PLEASE COME FORWARD. You have a waiting audience.

ta

c.


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## scouter (Dec 14, 2007)

*New Knees*

I can't speak from personal experience but my sister had both knees replaced in about 2001 and 2003 and each time I spent a couple of weeks staying with her and helping her when she came out of hospital.

Unfortunately, cancer took a couple of years after the second operation and was totally unrelated.

Joyce had spent all her life walking in the mountains (big mountains), high level traverses in the alps, Everest base camp and the Annapurna circuit for example, as well as most w/es in the Lake District.

Her first knee was replaced when she was 63, her surgeon (who was one of 3 or 4 that Man Utd used) made her wait until her other knee was giving her trouble because he was concerned she would wear it out. As it turned out, she was given a new type of knee with "Replaceable bearings". She was determined that she would enjoy life to the full so she endured the pain of the exercises to get enough movement to be allowed out of hospital and then continued the exercises to gain "full" movement of the knee and was commended by the team at the hospital and used as an example of how good the new knee could be BUT you had to do the exercises, even when they hurt.

By this time her other knee had more or less collasped and she had the other one done, with a different original type replacement knee but the surgery and fitting were more difficult and recovery took longer. She was able to walk normally and back into her beloved mountains and then suddenly illness hit her and cancer was eventually diagnosed.

When she had doubts at first, a friend who was in his 70's hopped around the kitchen on his replacement knee and told her to go for it!

By the way, replacement knees etc are a hoot with the new airport security!! Joyce's friend had a new hip, knee and shoulder and he set everything off.

So go for it BUT as the old saying goes there's no gain without pain when it comes to the rehab!

cheers alan


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## javea (Jun 8, 2007)

Thanks Alan for that very full and useful response. 

Regards,

Mike


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## Wupert (Aug 6, 2007)

javea03730 said:


> I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has had knee replacement surgery.
> 
> My wife suffers from osteoarthritis in both knees. She initially had some injections given by her consultant (privately) which did help for a few months but after the second injection the effects were not as great.
> 
> ...


Just out of hospital with a shiny new full replacement hip

The ward was full of knee jobs all were up and walking the day after their op

They had full replacement knees and I was told the opp these days has improved tremendously

They were out of hospital on crutches in 4/5 days

The age range was from mid 50's to 80 plus

Hope this helps

Hip Hop Wups


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## CliveMott (Mar 10, 2008)

Thanks Wups,
Dare I ask how old you are?

Ta
C.


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## javea (Jun 8, 2007)

Thanks Wups. 

My neighbour aged 71 had a replacement hip joint on Friday, walking on crutches on Saturday, back home last night looking extremely well.

He asked me to walk up the stairs behind him just in case he slipped - in fact he went up without any problems at all.

Hope your recovery continues without any problems.

Regards,

Mike


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

After years of me complaining of knee pain, my GP finally sent me for an X-ray recently and it came back that I have "moderate to sever O/A with almost total loss of joint space in the medial compartment"

The advice I've had is to wait until it is the last resort before going for surgery.

So I'm interested in hearing other's experiences.


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## Wupert (Aug 6, 2007)

CliveMott said:


> Thanks Wups,
> Dare I ask how old you are?
> 
> Ta
> C.


67 last week 5 days after my op

I'm obviously still using crutches but there is absolutly no pain in the hip area.

The guys having knees done had the full replacement and kept the kneecap.

I think the knee rehab is a touch more painful than the hip though


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## Wupert (Aug 6, 2007)

javea03730 said:


> Thanks Wups.
> 
> My neighbour aged 71 had a replacement hip joint on Friday, walking on crutches on Saturday, back home last night looking extremely well.
> 
> ...


Cheers Mike

My only prob is with a hip job we have to sleep on our backs for a few months something I find very difficult to do.


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## Wupert (Aug 6, 2007)

Stanner said:


> After years of me complaining of knee pain, my GP finally sent me for an X-ray recently and it came back that I have "moderate to sever O/A with almost total loss of joint space in the medial compartment"
> 
> The advice I've had is to wait until it is the last resort before going for surgery.
> 
> So I'm interested in hearing other's experiences.


Good advice I'm sure

My take was the quality of my and my wifes life was being compromised.


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

After being in considerable pain I was told by the consultant that I needed a new knee in late December 2006 I was 72 at the time.
I was also told that the NHS waiting list was 6 months.

We decided that life was too short to wait that long so decided to go private.
Using the internet found a great deal by going to Abbeville, France. Went at the end of January and spent 14 days there.
Six weeks later I was driving the motorhome again and have never looked back.

In on the Wednsday
Tests and checks on Thursday
Op on Friday
Stay in bed Saturday
Up and walking Sunday
Saw physio every day who checked progress
Discharged 10 days later.

I reckon I would be in a wheelchair now if I hadn't had the op.


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

How much??


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

Stanner said:


> How much??


Ouch, trying to remember.

From memory, we were quoted between £9750 and £10,500 to have it done at BUPA, Leicester.
This was for a 5 day stay in hospital and when we asked about physio they said we would be given instructions on what to do when we got home.

The price quoted by people-logistics was for 
Transport from home to Abbeville
14 day stay in hospital and all medical procedures
All meals
Return to our home in Loughborough

An extra was for MOH to stay in the same room and for bed and board. Think that was an extra £300

Can't remember the exact price but we saved a total of more than £2500 as against the BUPA price.

This was the hospital and surgeon:
http://www.operation-france.com/theclinic.aspx

People Logistics is mentrioned in this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1567585/Fears-and-frustrations-driving-patients-abroad.html


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## Zozzer (Aug 13, 2006)

Mrs Zozzer had half a knee replaced two years ago, and the consultants said she needed her other knee replacing too, but would leave it 12months between operations. Then in Oct 2009 she went in for explority sugery to ascertain if she needed half or a full knee replacement. In Jan 2010 she went back to hospital for the results and saw a totally new consultant who said that her knew was completely worn out but refused surgery on the grounds that she was too young. And he would refer her to pain management. We later found out that one of her original consultants had left the hospital to go back to the USA and the other was taking a 12month holiday in New Zealand.

As yet she has not seen any pain managemnt team and is due back in June to see this junior consultant. If she does not get an operation then she is going ask her GP to refer her to another hospital, as we feel the health trust is discriminating against local patients in favour of pateints from other health authority area's thus bringing in much needed external revenue.

Angry is not the word.


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## MrsW (Feb 8, 2009)

My mum had a knee replacement a year before she died (of an un-related problem). The knee was sore afterwards and she needed pain relief for a fair while but she did have improved mobility and a different less wearing sort of pain in the weeks following surgery compared to that which she had endured for years before. However she was 80 and fairly reluctant to get moving afterwards and was also plagued by other health issues.

The youngsters, ie the under 80's got going on the first post-operative day and mostly never looked back. Without exception, those on the ward when mum was there were pleased they had gone through with the surgery. 

The physio is quite tedious but well worth doing - it is as much key to a good result as is a good surgeon. Don't go for the first surgeon you are offered a referral to. Instead check out where the local centre of excellence is and how many operations of the same kind they do annually and how good are their results. Go for the hospital that does many ops each year and with low failure rates.


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## DeeGee7 (Jun 22, 2009)

I had my left knee replaced 6th April 2009 and was in hospital until the 10th April. The surgery took a bit longer than usual as the surgeon straightened my leg at the same time. I was very bow-legged before and the op has straightened the leg perfectly. For the first 2 days you are connected up to a morphine pump so that you can self dose when the pain becomes too much. 2 days later you are given pain killers in tablet form for when you need them. Most people do need them but the pain is controlled very well. After the op I was in bed for 2 days before the physiotherapist gave me a set of exercises to do. These exercises are the key to a successful result and they must be done, and regularly. I walked out of the hospital after 4 days with the support of crutches but to be honest they were more to give me confidence than a necessity. I did not require any pain relief at all after a month and the only problem I had was the stockings I had to wear for 6 weeks to prevent a DVT and not being allowed to drive for that time. I was 63 when I had the op.


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## teal (Feb 23, 2009)

We had just come back from Germany and i looked for some reason into the enging compartment when i had this almighty pain from my kneecap, i could not move until i shifted the knee into place. Surgeon cleaned up the "ligament"but pain got worse so had knee replacement. At the time he did not say that the patella was not replaced so hear i am now with acking knee and cannot kneel down , i feel like an ostrich with one leg outstretched.. I am aware of this knee most of the day.Am 77 this year had it done about 2 years now


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## H12GCP (Dec 22, 2008)

As with any operation there is an element of risk. My wife suffers from O/A and at 54 years old she had a TKR op two years ago. About 6 months ago she had to go back for remedial surgery. She is due another consultation next week. She has very little mobility on her replaced knee, and is in far worse pain now than she was before the TKR proceedure. The surgoen, who is an Aston Villa OS, wants her to have her other knee replaced....guess what she said!!


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## H12GCP (Dec 22, 2008)

Further to the above....I must say that my wifes operation appeared to be ok, she left hospital being able to shuffle around on crutches but after physio, no improvements .......her quality of life is not as good as it was pre op


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## bigbazza (Mar 6, 2008)

I'm still having physio for my full replacement knee which I had late last year. (I'm 65) I am completely pain free and walking and driving without any problems. The only downside for me is that I have a restricted bend ( about 115Degree's) but it hasn't bothered me so far.


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## Rudderman (May 31, 2005)

*Replacement Knee*

Hi

I had a Full Knee Replacement in 2007 at the age of 69. I have had no problems since and I often use ladders and stepladders (with care!).

I was out of bed the day after the op. and out of (NHS)hospital after 5 or 6 days. With a Full Knee Replacement one thing you have to be careful of is not to twist the knee as it is missing some of the 'crossover' ligaments which in a normal knee would stop it twisting.

The Full Knee Replacement is a much bigger operation than a hip one and can take many months to recover properly, but in my view is well worth it.

The scar is quite long, about 8 inches or so.

I have quite a few photos of my knee following the weeks after the operation!!!! If anyone wants to see them then pm me :lol: :lol:


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## spartacus (Jul 10, 2008)

I had a total knee replacement three years ago, I was 50 so relatively young for the procedure. My problem was osteo arthritis due to a fairly serious RTA (motorcycle) back in 1990. The last five or six years prior to the replacement the pain became gradually worse to the point where I was limping very badly and unable to walk very far, and then with a stick.

The operation was performed on the NHS by a surgeon who had treated me for the last fifteen years. I was lucky, he was internationally re-knowned and also responsible in large part for the design of, what was then, a knew type of ceramic/titanium joint. The op took five hours, I was walking the following day, out of hospital within three days and three weeks later I went for a quick spin on my motorcycle  

A lot of effort was needed on physiotherapy to get as much functionality back in to the joint, if you don't do this you will not gain full movement in the knee and will never recover it. I had a small setback which required additional surgery and full recovery took much longer than I anticipated. However after eighteen months I was totally pain free and with a range of movement in the joint that surprised even my surgeon. You have to be patient with your recovery period, I expected to be "normal" after six months and was getting frustrated with what I saw as my slow process. My surgeon had to tell me that eighteen months was a much more sensible expectation but of course varies from case to case.

It has made a huge difference to my life and enabled me to do things in work, business and leisure I could not have done prior to the surgery.

Good luck, I'm sure you won't regret it. Incidentally my surgeon told me of a colleague (female doctor) who was 25 when she had a replacement knee, Fifteen years later she was still going strong on the original joint.

Sorry if this is a bit of a long waffle but I thought the more info for the OP the better!


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## javea (Jun 8, 2007)

Hi Spartacus,

Thank you very much indeed for your expansive post. Certainly not waffle - my wife is very appreciative of the honest account you have given of your experiences.

Regards,

Mike


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## travelingirl (Sep 1, 2009)

just had to reply to this, only got back offhols yesterday so a bit late.
I had adouble knee replacement in 2003 at the grand old age of 46,both were done at the same time.
Ihave advanced osteoarthritis in most of my joints (it seems to run in the family) but made mine worse with playing sports from a young age.

before the op walking was becoming impossible as my knees would slip and i would be on the floor (embarrasing when your sober), the op went well and i walked out of hospital 10 days later, i did my own physio as i was determined to have good bend and mobility. I did have a set back this was because of my age they did not cement my new joint in place but put it in free alowing the bone to grow round the metal rod and muscle to build . the setback was that the piece of plastic inserted where cartlidge would be shot to the back of my knee when i bent it, (agony) i had my right leg in plaster for 4 wks and it did the trick. the replacements did not feel part of me for a couple of years , do i still feel pain? yes but its not the same. OH and i had the op in the january and was back at work walking the kennel dogs by May. so if your wife decides to go ahead with it good luck, and why wait till she`s 70 its now she needs her mobility. Kim 8)


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