Ann

[Anninthesun]

My grandaughter is aged 17 and had surgery in September last year to reconstruct her anterior cruciate ligament. The surgery went well but she has had severe problems with the wound healing. The surgeon has opened up the wound twice for debridement and cleaning but it still will not heal, she now has a very large area on the knee that scabs over then bleeds and leaks yellow fluid then scabs again but does not want to heal. The surgeon says this is fine and that it will eventually heal. Is this correct? It is now 4 months after surgery and I am very worried should we get a second opinion?

[sugarpopamy]

I definitely think you should get a second opinion. Sounds infected. The same thing happened to me and I had to finally get a skin graft to close it up.

[JainMD]

Hi,
I am sorry to say but it is wrong to estimate that the wound will eventually heal. It has been four months since the surgery.
Wound healing might be delayed due to either infection, defect in coagulation pathway or defciency of some coagulation factors in blood.
What the doctor has to say about this?
What investigations have been done so far?
I think you should be doing a culture study of the discharge fluid from the wound and see if any infection persists. You should also be seeing a hematologist for further evaluation.
Hope this helps you.
Bye.