Leg pain after hip replacement

My wife is having extreme leg pain in her leg.  this past year she had two hip replacements. The second hip replacement was done in oct of 09.  as of jan og 10 she has leg pain from the implant down to her foot.  but mostly in the thigh area.  any ideas in what can be wrong.  she is seeing a specialist in april but looking for advice ahead of time.

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Thank you for your question. Although without being able to examine you I can not offer you the specific advice on diagnosis and treatment that you need, but I would try to provide you some relevant information about your health concern.

I do sympathize with your health concern after surgical complication. It seems that you might have leg nerve injury during the surgery so that may have been resulted into RSD (reflex sympathetic dystrophy). Symptoms of RSD could be intense pain in leg, numbness, altered skin color, swelling and abnormal sensitivity. Treatment of RSD mainly includes steroid & pain killer. In addition, physiotherapy is the essential part of the treatment to improve the movement of the affected leg. I would suggest consulting a neurologist as well in order to reach at probable diagnosis here. Hope this information proves helpful to you.