blood pooling in left knee 1 year after TKR

[tanjan48]

Hi I am 63yr old female,   and 1 yr ago i had TKR on left knee then 3 months later had TKR on right knee..  They said i was a poster child for both surgeries... i was  back to linedancing 6 weeks after each one.  I started having problems with my left knee about a month after my 2nd surgery....Numbness, pain stiffness,swelling, crunches and buckles..... It hurts when I sleep and just sitting or standing can make it go bad..... I thought it would eventually go away  but it hasn't...  My Dr. has x-rayed and does not see anything?  thinks maybe it is blood pooling up..and said to come in when it swells up and they will drain to see..  Well it flared up again a few days ago just one hour into linedancing  and today I noticed a big bruise under the front of my knee  so this tells me it is blood pooling up that is making me a cripple....Has anyone else had this problem?  If so what did u do?  I don't want to suffer with this from now on....I am in worse pain then ever i was before surgery's.  And when it flares up it is worse then when i was recouping from the surgeries!  What would make the blood pool? Can surgery fix this?  I am willing to go under the knife if it will fix it...This is miserable!!!!!  BTW my right knee is perfect.  Any help greatly appreciated  so i can be an advocate for myself when i go to see my Dr. this next week....thankyou..Jan

[ritajean77]

I have been fighting with my knee replacement since 2005.  By 2011 I have had 13 surgeries on this knee.  First couple of weeks were great then out of the blue the pain increased, swelling, and mobility started to decrease.  Within a month I could not fully straighten or bend.  It locked into a bent position.  Orthopedic kept saying it was fault because I was not doing PT, but I was faithful with PT.  By 2008 my orthopedic would not see me anymore.  I went to the Veterans Hospital and when my primary care doctor looked at my knee it was so swollen that he called the Orthopedic and I seen him the next day and a week later I was in surgery because I had a severe infection.  Still the knee is messed up and I have started using a wheelchair.  Now they have discovered, since November 2015 when I lost total movement that I am having blood pooling in the knee, tibia, and femur stems.  I also have rods going up from my knee and down.  They say the TKR is lose and infected again.  I have to see the surgeon next week.  They already said I cannot have anymore surgeries on the knee and they are probably going to have to take the leg off almost to the hip.  I understand the frustration because I have been blamed and accused of drug hunting for why the knee has not functioned.

[Sunjh]

Hi!
I have been searching the internet for answers and am so glad to have found this blog. I am 49 yrs old and had to have a partial knee replacement in Aug of 2015, I started having swelling that would subside a month after surgery. I told my physical therapist how limited I was but didn't go back to the surgeon to rule out infection until Feb 2015. Putting kids first. Right away they thought no infection because my knee wasn't red or hot. However the xrays showed my knee cap displaced due to swelling and limited movement. They were shocked when blood was drawn out of knee. They insisted I must have done trauma to it. They didn't believe me that I hadn't done anything. In fact my physical therapist scolded me for not progressing faster. I tried to explain to them I recover from knee swelling post pt. So surgeon did an arthoscopy in March but it didn't show anything wrong except reminent blood in synovium. I keep my knee wrapped unless sleeping and have to have ice on it from noon on to keep swelling and blood pooling. Doctors have no answers. Now have inflammation in my left wrist and little bumps in my mouth. Finally will have an allergy patch this week to test for metal allergies. My doctor has done thousands of knee replacements. He thinks it is now the result of a slow growing infection.
Now I'm looking at a surgery to take out replacement and put in cement with antibiotics, then 6 weeks later a total knee replacement. If I still have blood pooling in knee after that I don't know how I will take it! Pain increasing.  What happened to you Jan and Linde*?

[linde8]

I am having the same problem. I had my total knee replacement in 2007
& it never stopped hurting.  I have the same symptoms as you. I had a
bone density test done with the dye to see if I have blood pooling &
I believe I do.  I also had some blood work done ..all this done this week, now I have to wait to see my knee doc next week.  I am so tired of this pain. I can't walk, stand or bend my knee without it hurting. If I walk to long
my knee swells like a softball. I Just hope something can be done to help me.  Have you gotten any answers yet on the complications of the knee replacement?  I live in Arizona.  My doctor better come up with something to help me.

[tanjan48]

thankyou for the suggestions.   Since i wrote this  i have been back to Dr.  and they pulled a huge vial of blood from my knee.. (end of Oct.)- there was no infection, thank goodness.. I have had multiple xrays and they show nothing? My Dr.  said he has only had 2 others like this out of 2000 + surgeries and only 50/50 that surgery would help.  and to soon to go back in...come back this summer.. he did give me a knee brace   and that helps a bit for stability,but that is all..  I am in constant pain,and pressure and swelling makes it hard to bend my knee or walk  and sleeping is difficult as just having my knee touching my other knee is painful..i have to use a pillow between them and that only helps a little.  Would I be wise to seek another Dr for opinion  or would it be impossible to find one that would get in the middle of this? Its a small town... Is there other tests that could be done besides xrays to see what the problem is>  I have asked them to do some but he says no.  I am beginning to wonder if something was left in there, or he is trying to cover something up.  getting mad and worried and frustrated....I cant imagine there is nothing they can do and I have to suffer with this forever,plus blood pooling in my body doesn't strike me as healthy

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hay Jan!

Well, without a clinical evaluation it would not be possible to comment on what could cause the bleeding. Likely possibilities include constant trauma in and/ or around the joint, medication side effect, connective tissue disorders, blood disorders, micronutrient deficiencies etc. Since its just one knee involved the later ones are less likely. Also without a cause at and it would be inappropriate to comment on if a revision surgery could fix the issue. I would suggest discussing the likely possibilities and the appropriate management plan in detail with your orthopedician. Meanwhile you may try taking some Vitamin C tablets for a better healing of the bruise.
Hope this is helpful.

Take care!